Ormandy: Nutcracker & Sleeping Beauty Suites (rec. 1952) - Columbia ML 4729

Jacket EX / LP EX

This lovely LP from Columbia Masterworks (ML 4729, US pressing, gray 6eye label, mono) features Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra in sumptuous and evocative accounts of the Suites to Tchaikovsky’s ballets The Nutcracker Op. 71a and The Sleeping Beauty Op. 66, both warmly recorded at the Academy of Music, Philadelphia, on 21 December 1952. The exact selections from each ballet are as follows:

The Nutcracker Op. 71a

1. Overture
2. Danses caracteristiques (March · Dance of the Sugar-Plum Fairy · Russian Dance – Trepak · Arabian Dance · Chinese Dance · Dance of the Reed – Pipes)
3. Waltz of the Flowers

The Sleeping Beauty Op. 66

1. Introduction
2. Adagio – Pas d’action
3. Pas de caractere
4. Panorama
5. Valse

Incidentally, the striking cover photo was taken by Hal Reif. There are superb liner notes (uncredited) on the reverse side of the jacket, printed in English only.