A great compilation of interesting ballet music is on a 2CD Duo collection by Herbert von Karajan on DG. Featuring Gaite Parisienne, Sleeping Beauty, Faust Ballet Music, Coppelia and Les Sylphides, this collection performed by the Berliner Philharmonic is top notch. The set is no longer in print on CD, but the MP3 version is quite a good deal.
Richard Strauss: Orchestral Works – Herbert von Karajan Amazon MP3 Download Version Karajan’s recordings from the 1980’s of Richard Strauss’ symphonic works ranks up there with the absolute best, and DG has put together a 5CD bargain set. All of the big works are here, recorded with ther Berlin Philharmonic. Pretty much every recording here is on my Basic Repertoire list, or as an alternate, so for around $25 you cannot go wrong. All of the major symphonic works are…