BaL 21.12.19 - Tchaikovsky: The Nutcracker

[gurnemanz]

Is the Suite also being considered? Alpie wasn't sure whether versions on the list were complete or suite. I have read that the suite was actually composed before he completed the entire ballet. I've been checking suite versions I have. A small but diverse selection, all good. None are on the list and only Toscanini might be mentioned by BaL:

Toscanini/NBCSO - 1951 (55 years after he conducted it at his very first symphonic concert in Turin in 1896). Snappily done in vivid mono sound. It's on the complete RCA box.
Ellington/Strayhorn - 1960, jazz wind version. Imaginatively rendered and very enjoyable. Thoroughly recommended.
Martha Argerich and Mirabela Dina live in concert in Lugano 2003. A very effective two-piano version by Nicolas Economou (6CD issue is a box of delights. Great offer here).

[vinteuil]

Now listening to the QOBUZ CD rate stream of the 4th Symphony. Horror of horrors I find myself mainly concurring with David Horrowitz. Though glad to hear the instruments the composer knew the sounds and capabilities of, the performance does sound rather run of the mill. No wonder the CD option appears to have dropped out of the catalogue.

... the amazon reviewers seem better disposed to it -

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Tchaikovsky-Symphony-No-Nutcracker-Suite/dp/B00008AJLW/

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[Master Jacques]

I have read that the suite was actually composed before he completed the entire ballet.

Curious... though I don't see how that would have been possible.

The Nutcracker was commissioned as half of a double bill with the opera Iolanta, and the choreographer Petipa gave Tchaikovsky a bar by bar breakdown of what he required for the ballet, the music for which was then composed to order. According to everything I've read, at least, the Suite was assembled by the composer soon after the ballet's (unsuccessful) premiere in 1892, and rapidly became extremely popular. The opera was better received initially, though it's only now starting to catch up with the ballet again in critical (and popular) esteem.

[Oakapple]

I think the suite was performed first in March 1892 and the full ballet afterwards in December of that year. Part of the reason for the lukewarm response to the ballet was that the first act did not have all the lollipops of the second.

[MickyD]

... the amazon reviewers seem better disposed to it -

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Tchaikovsky-Symphony-No-Nutcracker-Suite/dp/B00008AJLW/

.

I haven't got the disc in my collection, but did hear bits of the Nutcracker on the radio once and rather liked it. I am intrigued to get hold of it as I think it is probably the only recording of orchestral Tchaikovsky to be recorded on period instruments. I do have a fortepiano version of 'The Seasons', which is disappointingly run of the mill.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I haven't got the disc in my collection, but did hear bits of the Nutcracker on the radio once and rather liked it. I am intrigued to get hold of it as I think it is probably the only recording of orchestral Tchaikovsky to be recorded on period instruments. I do have a fortepiano version of 'The Seasons', which is disappointingly run of the mill.

HIPP Tchaikovsky? Quite apart from squeezing the life and soul from this passionate composer’s music, you then have to contend with playing the 1812 Overture without cannons.

[Bryn]

HIPP Tchaikovsky? Quite apart from squeezing the life and soul from this passionate composer’s music, you then have to contend with playing the 1812 Overture without cannons.

What, as the composer wrote it? Out of the question. Interesting you seem to find that Tchaikovsky put no life and soul in it to start with, and it only got in there by later addaptation by others.

[Dave Payn]

Is the Suite also being considered? Alpie wasn't sure whether versions on the list were complete or suite. I have read that the suite was actually composed before he completed the entire ballet. I've been checking suite versions I have. A small but diverse selection, all good. None are on the list and only Toscanini might be mentioned by BaL:

Toscanini/NBCSO - 1951 (55 years after he conducted it at his very first symphonic concert in Turin in 1896). Snappily done in vivid mono sound. It's on the complete RCA box.
Ellington/Strayhorn - 1960, jazz wind version. Imaginatively rendered and very enjoyable. Thoroughly recommended.
Martha Argerich and Mirabela Dina live in concert in Lugano 2003. A very effective two-piano version by Nicolas Economou (6CD issue is a box of delights. Great offer here).

The only version I have of the suite is of the Berlin Phil/Rostropovich. Very pleased with that but always willing to seek out other versions. I’m particularly intrigued by the Ellington...

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I’m particularly intrigued by the Ellington...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJHHAXvx878

[Oakapple]

If you like your Nutcrackers fast, as well as Gergiev you could try extended excerpts from Fritz Reiner and the Chicago SO.

As for the suite, someone I know who plays in an amateur orchestra told me they were playing the Suite no. 2. I said there was only one but he showed me the music and there it was so called. There was no mention of the arranger.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

... someone I know who plays in an amateur orchestra told me they were playing the Suite no. 2. I said there was only one but he showed me the music and there it was so called. There was no mention of the arranger.

There was a "second suite" on side two of the first recording I had - the Paris Conservatoire Orchestra conducted by Anatole Fistoulari:



... I think that the selection was the conductor's own, becuase there's a recording of a "Second Suite" by Bychkov with the BPO, that has a slightly different selection & ordering:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M22UPSAcZj8

[vinteuil]

.

... wiki lists a fair amount of 'versions' -

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Nutcracker#Tchaikovsky:_The_Nutcracker_Suite,_Op._71a

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[cloughie]

If you like your Nutcrackers fast, as well as Gergiev you could try extended excerpts from Fritz Reiner and the Chicago SO.

As for the suite, someone I know who plays in an amateur orchestra told me they were playing the Suite no. 2. I said there was only one but he showed me the music and there it was so called. There was no mention of the arranger.

Fistoulari and PCO recorded a Suite 2 coupled with Suite 1 on a Decca, then reissued on ACL, and more recently on CD on Australian Eloquence. Also in the big Decca Mono Box.

[vinteuil]

.

There was a "second suite" on side two of the first recording I had - the Paris Conservatoire Orchestra conducted by Anatole Fistoulari ... I think that the selection was the conductor's own...

.

Fistoulari and PCO recorded a Suite 2 coupled with Suite 1 on a Decca, then reissued on ACL, and more recently on CD on Australian Eloquence.

... from the product description on amazon : " Fistoulari included not only the familiar 'First' Suite but a Second Suite of his own confection, featuring more music from the First Act such as the Waltz of the Snowflakes as well as the Spanish Dance from the Second-Act divertissement and the sublime Final Waltz and Apotheosis."

[HighlandDougie]

... the amazon reviewers seem better disposed to it -

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Tchaikovsky-Symphony-No-Nutcracker-Suite/dp/B00008AJLW/

.

On the - admittedly rare - occasions when I want to listen to The Nutcracker Suite, this is the version which I normally choose. Okay, the strings don't have the heft of the Berlin Philharmonic but I love the clarity which the use of a relatively small orchestra brings to the music. Jos van Immerseel brings his usual musical intelligence and flair to bear so that one hears detail that usually passes one by. He is clearly fond of the music, too, and is certainly not just going through the motions.