The Nutcracker Suite

I     Overture
II    Danses Characteristiques:
	a   March
	b   Dance of the Sugar-Plum Fairy
	c    Russian Dance (Trepak)
	d    Arabian Dance
	e    Chinese Dance
	f    Dance of the Reed-Flutes
III   Waltz of the Flowers

These pieces, arranged for piano duet by Eduardo Langer, are from a selection from the Nutcracker ballet that Tchaikowsky made before the ballet’s 1892 premiere and were intended for concert performance. The suite was first performed, under the composer’s direction, on 19 March 1892 at an assembly of the St Petersburg branch of the Musical Society and comprises pieces largely taken from the divertissement provided by the Sugar-Plum Fairy for the amusement of Clara, the main character of the ballet. 

Tchaikowsky composed The Nutcracker between February 1891 and April 1892 in tandem with an opera, Iolanta for performance in the Imperial Theatres of St Petersburg. He had been commissioned to do so following the success of the opera, The Queen of Spades and the Sleeping Beauty ballet. 

The ballet, based on the story, “The Nutcracker and The Mouse-King” by E.T.A. Hoffmann, was choreographed by Petipa and Lev Ivanov, but met with mixed reviews, largely due to the choreography.  The ballerina chosen for the role of the Sugar-Plum Fairy was deemed to be “podgy” and the battle-scene to be “completely amateurish”. Petipa had calculated the exact number of bars necessary for each dance and insisted that Tchaikowsky stuck to this.

The plot of the ballet is as follows. It is Christmas Eve at the home of Herr and Frau Silberhaus. Clara and her brother, Fritz admire the finished tree and decorations. The children’s godfather, Herr Drosselmeyer, a toymaker, arrives and distributes various presents. One of these is a Nutcracker Doll. Fritz seizes this from Clara and proceeds to use it, not unreasonably, to crack a walnut. The Nutcracker Doll breaks and a heartbroken Clara tucks it into her dolls’ bed.

During the night, Clara creeps downstairs to check on progress, the clock strikes midnight and Clara looks up to see Godfather Drosselmeyer perched atop the clock. Clara shrinks, the Christmas tree grows, and the little girl finds herself in the middle of a battle between some mice and a regiment of gingerbread soldiers. The mice begin to eat the soldiers and The Nutcracker comes to their rescue with reinforcements of tin soldiers. The soldiers win and the Nutcracker is transformed into a handsome prince who proceeds to lead Clara into a pine forest. They sail to the Kingdom of Sweets where The Sugar-Plum Fairy lays on a series of dances performed by sweets from all over the world: Coffee from Arabia, Tea from China, Candy Canes from Russia who perform a hoop dance, Danish Marzipan Shepherdesses who perform on flutes and Candy Flowers from France who perform a waltz.

However, all good things must come to an end and Clara is transported back to her home, having been made Queen of The Kingdom of Sweets alongside her beloved prince. How’s that for topicality?

Tchaikowsky himself was to die, of cholera, or possibly self-inflicted arsenic, the following year. Ever since the sudden death of his mother from cholera in 1854, Tchaikowsky had rejected the legal profession, and had turned instead to music for escape. Of it he said:

“ Music is not illusion, but revelation.”