Freebies

I've been trying to decide whether or not to include in this survey the free cover cd's of complete works that I've acquired with BBC Music magazine ( yes I know, get a life etc ) In the end I've decided to do so partly because they often represent the only version I have of a particular work ( as an aside, with classical cd's I tend not to want to have multiple interpretations of the same music, perhaps because my tastes are not specific enough to get into the nuances of different approaches to a work ) I've been collecting these BBC cd's since December 2000 with just one or two missing. The first one to consider here is extended highlights of Tchaikovsky's The Sleeping Beauty by the BBC Philharmonic conducted by Vassily Sinaisky. Sleeping Beauty gets lumped into being part of Christmas but there is no reason for that connection bar it being a guaranteed "bums on seats" presentation at that holiday time of the year. Anyway, Tchaikovsky the supreme melodist and all that. Too sugary sweet ? Well not for this story if you accept it on the level that it is intended to illustrate the tale. Many more of these free disks to consider as and when their place on the shelf rotates again.