Track Listing

1. Russian Dance
2. Pizzicatti
3. Waltz
4. Puss 'N Boots & The White Cat
5. Les Sylphides
6. Dance Of The Reed Pipes
7. Sabre Dance
8. Polonaise
9. Dance Of The Hours
10. Prld To Scene II
11. Hungarian Dance
12. Dance Of The Sugarplum Fairy
13. Dance Of The Cygnets (Part I)
14. The Broken Doll
15. Dance Of The Cygnets (Part II)
16. Arabian Dance
17. Chinese Dance
18. Waltz Of The Doll
19. The Enchantment
20. Waltz Of The Flowers

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #148743 in Music
• Released on: 2000-12-01
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Single
• Dimensions: .19 pounds

Amazon.com
The Classical Child at the Ballet, awarded the 1997 Gold Award by the National Association of Parenting Publications, makes a wonderful addition to any child's music library. A volume in the Classical Child series, this disc features 20 pieces of varying volume and tempo from ballets such as Swan Lake, The Nutcracker, and Sleeping Beauty--all scored by Tchaikovsky--to The Fairy Doll by Joseph Bayer and Coppelia by Leo Delibes. As the lovely rhythms and melodies play, young darlings will be inspired toward movement--scampering about like sugarplum fairies, foot tapping to "Les Sylphides," and tippy-toe dancing to "Waltz of the Flowers." --Paige La Grone

Customer Reviews

Warning: Electronic, not Symphonic
The music on this CD is electronically synthesized, not produced by traditional instruments. While this is not necessarily a horrible idea, it is apparent from the first moment of the first track and it did not suit our tastes.

Digital imitation of art
I'll preface my remarks by saying that I'm a classically trained musician with a degree in choral direction. So others, with a perhaps less critical or discerning ear, might like this recording just fine. I found it dreadful. By the second track I was cringing. It sounded, to me, utterly horrific.

But don't take my word for it. Listen to one of these pieces, like the Russian Dance or the Waltz of the Flowers from Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker, and then listen to the same piece from another Amazon CD recorded by a real orchestra. The experiment will speak for itself.

I have nothing against digitally produced music, I have even produced some myself. For some types of music, like New Age, it's wonderful. But this music, which most are used to hearing played on acoustic instruments by some of the world's greatest orchestras, sounds just terrible produced by synthesizer. The selections from Tchaikovsky, which make up the bulk of this CD, are especially a travesty. There are loads of great recordings of these pieces out there without any of this recording's faults.

Another complaint: presenting parts of these pieces out of order, as individual works, is another terrible idea. Each dance in a ballet is like one chapter of a story. Recording various bits, with different pieces shuffled together in random order, is like a book containing only random chapters from different stories.

There is a reason orchestral music doesn't sound good produced on synthesizer, and it has nothing to do with the differences in tone betweed digital and analog. It has to do with tuning, rhythm, dynamics, and inflection. This recording sounds out of tune, as if played by a group of completely deaf musicians, metrically rigid, and utterly lacking any expressive subtlety, which is a pretty good definition of an electronic instrument.

In an orchestra every musician listens carefully to all the others, carefully monitoring the volume and inflection of her playing in response to the conductor's directions and communicating with the other musicians to become part of a complex, but consistent artistic and emotional whole. It's one of the most profound artistic expressions human beings are capable of.

Children aren't stupid. Buy yours a recording of the Nutcracker or Swan Lake by a real orchestra and give them an experience worth their time.

Music is, after all, art.

Bed Time Favorite
My daughter has played this tape to fall asleep every night since she was 2. She is now 6. She was thrilled when we went to the Nutcracker and they were playing her "Go to Sleep" Music.
I am buying it for my 1-year old niece.