More of the music of Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893)
Reviews and Commentaries for The Nutcracker
Sonic Grade: B?
Not sure if we would still agree with what we wrote back in the ’90s when this record came out, but here it is anyway.
Superb! New records just don’t sound any better! This is the complete Nutcracker Ballet as conducted by Ansermet for Decca, a record that sets a standard of performance and sound that is unlikely ever to be equaled, and almost certainly not to be surpassed.
For those of you on a budget, if you can get your hands on one of these for a reasonable price, the Heavy Vinyl reissue would not be a bad way to go.
That’s assuming the copy you buy sounds at least good, similar to the one I played all those years ago, something that cannot be assumed.
But it would make for a good jumping off point.
A Must Own Classical Record (on Vintage Vinyl)
Ansermet breathes life into this ballet as only he can, and the Decca engineering team led by Kenneth Wilkinson do him proud.
It’s an Orchestral Spectacular that should have a place of honor in any audiophile’s collection.
Others that belong in that category can be found here.
More Heavy Vinyl Reviews
Here are some of our reviews and commentaries concerning the many Heavy Vinyl pressings we’ve played over the years, well over 200 at this stage of the game. Feel free to pick your poison.
There are many kinds of audiophile pressings — Half-Speeds, Direct-to-Discs, Heavy Vinyl Remasters, Japanese Pressings, the list of records offered to the audiophile with supposedly superior sound quality is a long one indeed.
Having been in the audiophile record biz for more than thirty years, it has been our misfortune to have played them by the hundreds,
In order to help you avoid the worst of the worst, we put a great many of them in a section of their own, which we call:
Bad Sounding Audiophile Records – The Complete List
How did we find so many bad sounding records? The same way we find so many good sounding ones. We included them in our shootouts, comparing them head to head with our best Hot Stampers.
When you can hear them that way, up against an exceptionally good record, their flaws become that much more obvious and, frankly, that much more inexcusable.