Sunday Classics: Yes, it's our 3rd Annual "Very Tchaikovsky Christmas"

Deems Taylor introduces and Leopold Stokowski conducts (the Philadelphia Orchestra) in most of the Nutcracker Suite segment of Walt Disney's Fantasia: "Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies," "Chinese Dance," "Dance of the Reed Flutes," "Arabian Dance," and "Russian Dance" -- missing only the final "Waltz of the Flowers" (which can be seen here).

by Ken

If you've been with us for the previews -- Nutcracker Friday night, and Swan Lake and Sleeping Beauty last night -- you know the plan. Two years ago we did our first "Very Tchaikovsky Christmas" in the form of a tribute to John Lanchbery's splendid recordings of all three Tchaikovsky ballets, and last year we branched out for a little bit of everything Tchaikovsky.

We've got lots of music coming, so there will be a minimum of chatter. We're going to take the ballets in chronological order, meaning that we start with Swan Lake and finish with The Nutcracker. And speaking of Swan Lake, I can't resist pausing for this:



FOR SWAN LAKE (KURTZ & STOKOWSKI), SLEEPING BEAUTY
(MONTEUX), AND NUTCRACKER (STEINBERG) MUSIC, CLICK HERE

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[12/12/2010] Yes, it's our 3rd Annual "Very Tchaikovsky Christmas" (continued)

The beginning and end of the 1959 Disney film version of Sleeping Beauty

TCHAIKOVSKY: Swan Lake, Op. 20

Swan Lake, Op. 20: excerpts

For the Kurtz recording i've maintained the groupings created by the banding on the LP.

Introduction
No. 2, Act I, Waltz
No. 4, Act I, Pas de trois, Nos. 1-6


No. 5, Act I, Pas de deux, Nos. 1-2


No. 5, Act I, Pas de deux, Nos. 3-4
No. 10, Act II, Scène
No. 13, Act II, Dance of the Swans, Nos. 1, 2, and 4


No. 13, Act II, Dance of the Swans, No. 5
No. 20, Act III, Hungarian Dance (Czárdás)
Supplement, Russian Dance

Yehudi Menuhin, violin; Philharmonia Orchestra, Efrem Kurtz, cond. EMI, recorded c1957


Swan Lake, Op. 20: Acts II-III

Act II


Act III

NBC Symphony Orchestra members, Leopold Stokowski, cond. RCA, recorded Oct. 1954-Feb. 1955

TCHAIKOVSKY: The Sleeping Beauty, Op. 66

The Sleeping Beauty, Op. 66: excerpts

Introduction
Prologue:
No. 1, March
No. 3, Pas de six: a. Intrada and Adagio; e. Variation IV; Fairy of the Canaries; f. Variation V, Fairy Violente


Act I:
No. 6, Garland Waltz
No. 8, Pas d'action: a. Rose Adagio; c. Aurora's Variation; d. Coda
No. 9, Finale: Aurora's Dance of Delirium; The King and Carabosse; Transformation of the Garden into a Forest


Act II:
No. 13, Farandole and Mazurka
No. 17, Panorama


Act III:
No. 22, Polonaise
No. 23, Pas de quatre: a. Intrada; c. Variation II, The Silver Fairy; e. Variation IV, The Diamond Fairy; f. Coda
No. 25, Pas de quatre: c. Variation II, The Blue Bird and Princess Florine; d. Coda
No. 26, Pas de caractère: a. Red Riding Hood and the Wolf
No. 28, Aurora Pas de deux: b. Adagio; c. Coda
No. 30, Finale: a. Mazurka; b. Apotheosis
London Symphony Orchestra, Pierre Monteux, cond. RCA/Decca, recorded June 1957

TCHAIKOVSKY: The Nutcracker, Op. 71

Nutcracker Suite, Op. 71a

As I mentioned Friday night, the Steinberg-Pittsburgh Symphony recordings made by Command in the '60s, produced by company founder Enoch Light, with the legendary Robert Fine as "recording chief," were of strikingly high quality both musically and sonically. (After Command was acquired by ABC Records, the market was flooded with cheap copies of significantly inferior pressings, so you have to be careful to go back to the gold-label originals.)

i. Miniature Overture
ii. March
iii. Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy
iv. Trepak (Russian Dance)
v. Arabian Dance
vi. Chinese Dance
vii. Dance of the Reed Pipes
viii. Waltz of the Flowers
Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, William Steinberg, cond. Command, recorded c1963


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