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Mercury Living Presence Boxed Set CD51 van55.
Antal Dorati really has this one wrapped up--as a great ballet conductor, Hungarian, and friend of the composer, he brings a special authority to Bela Bartók's allegorical ballet The Wooden Prince. This is Bartók at his most Romantically evocative, with orchestral writing full of shimmering textures and exotic sounds. This was the first stereo recording of the complete ballet, and it remains one of the finest, both in sound and performance. The Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta--better known as the soundtrack to The Shining--is similarly well-played and commandingly interpreted. Just about all of Dorati's Mercury recordings are classics, none more so than this. - David Hurwitz.