Raymonda
Raymondais a full-length ballet clearly inspired by Tchaikovsky's three great  works for the dance, and it's not far inferior to them. Glazunov was an immense musical talent, and  an excellent composer of dance music. His works do run the risk of being labeled "routine," to the  extent that he had such an easy gift at writing for orchestra that his music can lack the ultimate  melodic distinction. In other words, he sometimes sounds too comfortable. But when suitably  inspired, as here, and given a subject that really got his juices flowing, he could rise to the occasion.  This is the only complete recording of a ballet score than has many superb moments, and at budget  price it's a great value for the money.--David Hurwitz