Delibes: Sylvia (complete)/ Saint-Saens: Henry VIII (Ballet Music)
Tchaikovsky himself feared comparison with Delibes, and rightly so. The  Frenchman's two full-length ballets,CoppeliaandSylvia,set a  standard for tunefulness and craftsmanship that was well-nigh unbeatable. While  these great works have always been beloved by ballet aficionados, they aren't as  well known as they should be by general audiences. Part of the reason no doubt  stems from the lack of popular suites for concert performance. Most 19th-century  French composers wrote either operas or ballets, but nothing else. Absent a  large body of orchestral music or a tradition of public concerts, there was  really no opportunity for Delibes to break out of the "ballet ghetto."  Recordings of this quality should go a long way towards addressing this musical   miscarriage of justice.--David Hurwitz