4/5

You don't need to see it danced to know that Sleeping Beauty is a masterpiece. Tchaikovsky's music says it all, particularly when treated as a symphonic entity, with the orchestra in full view of the audience. Thus delivered by Timothy Dean and the Academy Symphony Orchestra on Wednesday, it became the ''definitive statement'' Tchaikovsky intended.

That Dean did away with the dancers was no hardship. The sound of the instrumentalists was what mattered and they played with a panache and eloquence seldom provided by a ballet orchestra in a theatre. The opening confrontation between good and evil crackled with energy. The set-pieces were grandly unfolded. The dramatic structure did not crumble during the work's long second half.

In a performance lasting almost three hours, this was an achievement. Violin solos were deftly characterised. A solo cello recalled the slow movement of the Fifth Symphony. Piquant pastiche was contrasted with long, flowing melody. Whizzing mazurka led finally to sonorous Russian apotheosis, the vital coda which ballet productions often omit. Dean, a conductor whose operatic expertise served him well, drew everything together with aplomb.