The fiftieth classical recording: #894 Aram Khachaturian - Spartacus
Part of our trip to Athens gave us a special treat - a performance of the Spartacus ballet in an ancient Greek theatre. We were sitting in the shadow of the Parthenon as a ballet was performed on a stage that was about 1800 years old, thankfully with some cushions to alleviate the trouble from sitting on a stone bench all day.
The ballet itself, then, sort of fit the environment - the events aren't that far off from when the theatre was built - and performed by leading Russian dancers really felt amazingly polished. The whole is a lot more modern than Sleeping Beauty, with some jazz influences in the music and the percussion from the dancer (very clearly heard on the wooden stage). The music is a big contributor to it - it's swelling and big in the right places, tender sometimes but mostly supports a lot of the military elements well.
It's a case where the music benefits from being more contemporary even where it follows classic elements and does it for that dance form - and creates an evocative story that's comprehensible all the way through.