I suspect that I've told you the tale of that magical time that Brigid and I were honoured guests at the Winter Court in St. Petersburg.... When else would we have a chance to wear fur overcoats, leather boots, beaver hats, and dress to the nines? Not to mention the parties! Brigid, me wife, wore black and only black while in that city; an amazing sight with her red hair, green eyes, and pale skin. 'Twas enough to stir the blood of the most jaded male. But I digress as this review's 'bout another Russian tradition -- The Nutcracker. Surely you've seen at least one version of The Nutcracker performed live, haven't you? Remember the lovely music that the Sugar Plum Fairies danced to? But have you ever just listened to the music? If not, I have a recommendation for you as to which one to purchase. A recording so crisp, so clean that you'll think it's live!

Yes, I know. There's are more Nutcrackers out there than bears bleedin' thinkin' about! Name a label, name an orchestra, name a conductor, and they'll have one or more Nutcracker on disc -- they sell all too terribly well, so that's not 'tall surprising. Most of them will do just fine, and many are indeed superb. But the Song Masterworks is the best one of dozens that I've heard thus far -- Eugene Ormandy with the Philadelphia Orchestra with production by Thomas Frost is both lively and well-produced, a rare combination these days.

Tchaikovsky wrote the beloved Nutcracker Suite ('Miniature Overture,/March / Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy / Trepak / Arab Dance / Danse Chinoise / Waltz of the flowers') over a period of years and completed it in 1892. It rapidly became part of the holiday tradition with the result being today that The Nutcracker Suite is every bit as much an intrinsic part of the secular Christmas season as gift giving, Dicken's A Christmas Carol, evergreen trees decorated with candles, and plum puddings, not to mention roasted chestnuts. Even if you hate classical music, I bet you like this piece of classical music which was inspired by E.T.A. Hoffman's The Nutcracker and The Mouse King.

Strictly speaking, it's an orchestral suite in six movements, but I suspect you don't really care about that, do you? What will find interesting is he didn't want to compose this 'tall. The story, according to the Moscow Ballet site, is this: 'When Tchaikovsky was invited in 1890 to compose a ballet based on E. T. A Hoffman's The Nutcracker and the Mouse King, he at first resisted the suggestion. He had read the story with pleasure some eight years earlier, but had thought it unsuitable for ballet. However, the version now offered. him was somewhat different from Hoffman's gothic fairy tale. It was an adaptation (ostensibly by the master choreographer, Marius Petipa, but written largely by his somewhat downtrodden assistant, Lev  Ivanov) of Casse-Nioselle, a French rendering of the tale by Alexandre Dumas fils. After reading this version, Tchaikovsky agreed, with some misgivings, to accept the assignment.'

Though a dark gothic version of The Nutcracker Suite would have been, errr, cold and very winter like, I for one am glad that he decided to be more upbeat! Not that the press at the time liked as a quote from him on this site notes of press comments: 'This is the fourth day on which the periodicals have been carving up my latest creations.... It is not the first time. The abuse does not annoy me at all, and yet - as always under these circumstances - I am in a hateful state of mind.' Cheerful, eh? (He did suffer from severe depression, a not uncommon problem among composers!)

Be that as it was now, it is not how it is thought of in the present day. And if you want music that's cheerful, entertaining, and quite magical, you can do much worse than this recording of The Nutcracker Suite. Recorded forty years ago in Philadelphia by the Eugene Ormandy with the Philadelphia Orchestra, it's only weakness is that it's excerpts and not a full recording. Why it's not a full recording is a mystery, but what is is barely thirty minutes long. What we get is brilliant, but I want the whole recording damn it! Let's implore Sony Masterworks to release the whole #$@! recording as I know that somwhere a master tape must exist. It would simply be the best recording of The Nutcracker Suite in existence if it was released today.

It's good, very good. Go buy it and you can join me in grumbling loudly at the full recording not existing!