AllMovie

The Russian-made Grand Concert features several top ballet artists dancing to the compositions of such composers as Borodin and Tchaikovsky. Highlights include selections from Swan Lake, Prince Igor, Eugene Onegin, Romeo and Juliet and Ivan Susanin. Among the featured dancers are Valeriya Barsova, Niava Plisetskaya, Marina Sernyonova and Galina Ulanovi. Given the early 1950s political climate, the film is refreshingly free of propaganda--save for the climactic Ivan Susanin sequence, which is staged on a set representing a collective farm. Grand Concert isn't really designed for mass consumption, but its color photography is pleasing enough to attract even those only marginally interested in ballet.