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| November 15, 2005 Nutcracker Suite
It is altogether fitting that this music should be part of the holiday festivities, and Tchaikovsky himself would surely be pleased, for that is exactly how he designed the work and how it was introduced one week before Christmas Day1892, when it shared a double bill at St. Petersburg’s Maryinsky Theater with his final opera Yolanta (please, not "Iolanthe": this work has nothing to do with the Gilbert-and-Sullivan one), itself a sort of fairy tale. The Nutcracker itself, whose scenario is by now too familiar to bear repeating here, is based on a tale by the German writer (and composer) E.T.A. Hoffmann called The Nutcracker and the Mouse King. Valery Gergiev, whose performance of the complete score with his Kirov Orchestra (based in the very theater in which the ballet’s premiere took place), may have had the darker side of Hoffmann’s tale in mind: his dramatic, brilliant but somewhat charm-challenged performance fits snugly on a single 81-minute CD from Philips. Some of the two-disc Nutcracker recordings cost no more than Gergiev’s single-disc one; some also come packaged with unusually attractive filler items. Here are more than a half-dozen very much worth considering: each has a chorus of children and/or women in the Waltz of the Snowflakes at the end of Act I, as specified in the score. Gennady Rozhdestvensky cond. Bolshoi Theater Orchestra,
Moscow This may have been the very first stereophonic recording made in Russia, though its date, 1960, suggests otherwise. It is clearly the most persuasive performance of this music yet offered in any recording format. The Musical Heritage Society and other labels circulated it here on LP, and BMG/Eurodisc offered a single CD of excerpts [7932-2-RG] before the complete version appeared on Melodiya. Both may be hard to find now, but this is a gem worth a search. Some allowances have to be made for the sound quality of the Melodiya set, while the Eurodisc is a good deal more natural. Ernest Ansermet cond. Orchestre de la Suisse Romande Decca has issued four complete recordings, and these three are outstanding. Ansermet’s recording is older than Rozhdestvensky’s, but it sounds better, and the performance, characteristically, is rich in both elegance and wit. If you can find this budget set, you will enjoy the stylish performance of the Rossini/Respighi ballet score La Boutique fantasque by the Israel Philharmonic under Georg Solti which fills out the second disc. If you like Ansermet enough to order the "Ansermet Edition" set from Japan, you will get a different filler: the Swiss conductor’s recording of Glazunov’s colorful ballet The Seasons and the same composer’s two concert waltzes. The Glazunov Seasons, with the episode in the final section that most conductors (including Ansermet) have omitted, fills out the Ashkenazy Nutcracker, a very sumptuous-sounding set taped in 1989-90. Dutoit’s 1992 recording is still more attractive, both musically and sonically. As his earlier Swan Lake was so stunning, there were hopes for a complete Sleeping Beauty from him, but those hopes were dashed with the appearance of this set, in which the filler is the very much-abbreviated form of that work known as Aurora’s Wedding. On its own terms, though, it is something unlikely to be bettered. Everything about this set is first-rate. Antal Doráti cond. London Symphony Orchestra Doráti, who began his international career as a conductor for the Ballets Russes, recorded three complete Nutcracker works: one with the Minneapolis SO in mono (also on Mercury), this one with the LSO, and a subsequent one with the Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam on the Philips label. Most listeners have felt that the LSO recording is the most all-round persuasive: the orchestra was at its peak in 1962, when this was taken down on 35mm tape, and the sound is vivid if just a trifle dry. The second disc carries the considerable bonus of a splendid account of Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for Strings, with Doráti conducting the newly formed Philharmonia Hungarica in one of its first and most memorable recordings, vintage 1958. Artur Rodzinski cond. Royal Philharmonic The earliest recording listed here, this one was made in London in 1956. Rodzinski was a formidable master conductor. If he was a surprising choice for this particular assignment, the way he came through was even more surprising: this is one of the most affectionate and communicative performances of this score, and it appears that special care was taken to obtain toy-instrument effects. (There was some speculation as to whether the gunshot in the battle with the Mouse King was fired by Rodzinski himself, who was known to keep a loaded pistol in his hip pocket.) The filler in this case is nothing less than Tchaikovsky’s Fourth Symphony, in a powerful, cogent performance that goes right to the heart of the work without the slightest condescension or indulgence. Finally, two more from conductors with strong ties to the work: Leonard Slatkin cond. Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra Both Slatkin, during his St. Louis years, and Abravanel, in Salt Lake City, actually conducted staged performances of The Nutcracker -- not once or twice, but several times in each of several seasons. They understood the work down to the ground and never seemed to lose their enthusiasm for it. Their recordings are impressive sonically, too, particularly the Abravanel, originated by Vanguard, on the DVD-Audio side of its new Silverline edition. In case you can’t find the Slatkin on its own, Sony/BMG has reissued his RCA recordings of all three Tchaikovsky ballets in a single economical box of six CDs. ...Richard Freed
Ultra Audio is part of the SoundStage! Network. |
The Nutcracker Suite, the only
concert suite Tchaikovsky himself prepared from any of his three ballets, was firmly
established in the orchestral repertory for many years. It was played frequently and at
all times of the year; Leopold Stokowski and Walt Disney included it in their
collaborative movie Fantasia. In the 78rpm era Stokowski’s 1934 recording of
the suite with the Philadelphia Orchestra was a basic item in every record collection, the
version on which a whole generation of listeners grew up. But the Nutcracker Suite,
not regarded as a holiday piece in those days, dropped out of the repertory about 50
years ago, as staged performances of the complete ballet The Nutcracker became more
and more frequent during the holiday season. George Balanchine’s famous production
for his New York City Ballet entered that company’s permanent repertory and inspired
communities throughout North America to mount their own presentations of the work. Record
companies began energetically recording the complete score. Today there is an abundance of
Nutcracker recordings from which to choose: some offer the entire ballet
score, some the concert suite, and some afford a sort of compromise, 40 minutes or so
representing about half of the complete score, or twice the amount of music in the suite.
(A prime example of this approach is Fritz Reiner’s fine recording with the Chicago
Symphony Orchestra, on an RCA "Living Stereo" CD that also includes the terrific
account of Tchaikovsky’s B-flat minor Piano Concerto with Emil Gilels as
Reiner’s soloist [09026-68530-2].)