Composers › Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky › Programme note
Act 2 from The Nutcracker Op.71
Gerald Larner wrote 8 versions of differing length — choose one below.
Like The Tales of Hoffmann, Offenbach’s last opera, The Nutcracker Tchaikovsky’s last ballet, is based on the work of E.T.A. Hoffmann. Not much of Hoffmann’s The Nutcracker and the Mouse King remains, however, in the scenario drawn up by the choreographer Marius Petipa for performance at the Maryinsky Theatre in 1892. What the ballet is really about is childhood, the magic of Christmas, the romance of the Nutcracker transformed into a handsome prince when young Clara saves his life by killing the Mouse King and, in the second act, the visit of Clara and the Nutcracker Prince to the Kingdom of Sweets.
The first scene of the ballet takes place in the hall of the house of Councillor Silberhaus, where the adults of the family are busy decorating a Christmas tree as a surprise for the children. Clearly, to judge by the happy tune introduced by strings and the brightly coloured woodwind solos, it is a pleasurable activity. It’s exciting too as tension mounts for the climatic moment when the children – Clara, her brother Fritz, and their little guests - are admitted to feast their eyes on the magical spectacle.
From Gerald Larner’s files: “Nutcracker - Christmas tree”
Miniature Overture
March
Dance of the Sugar-Plum Fairy
Trepak
Arab Dance
Chinese Dance
Dance of the Reed Pipes
Waltz of the Flowers
When Tchaikovsky conducted the first performance of his Nutcracker Suite in St Petersburg in 1892 no fewer than five movements had to be encored. In fact, it was very much more successful than the ballet itself when it was first staged a few months later. As the public discovered, there is little else in the ballet score as immediately attractive and easily enjoyable as the eight pieces selected for the Suite.
Bearing in mind that the Nutcracker is a relatively short ballet set in a household full of children at Christmas time, the Miniature Overture is both perfectly proportioned and, in the absence of such heavy instruments as cellos and basses, most appropriately coloured. So is the bright little children’s March with its hints of toy trumpets and pipes.
The next five movements come from the second act of the ballet where the child heroine Clara and the Nutcracker Prince are welcomed as guests of the Sugar-Plum Fairy in the Palace of Sweets. The Dance of the Sugar-Plum Fairy features the celesta, an instrument Tchaikovsky had recently discovered in Paris. He makes delightful use of it here, most effectively offsetting its sugary tones with the dark chocolate sound of the bass clarinet and the liquorice of the cor anglais. Risking an attack of indigestion, the Trepak is a vigorous Russian dance. Clara and the Nutcracker Prince are entertained to coffee in the Arab Dance and to tea in the Chinese Dance grotesquely scored for low-pitched bassoons and high-pitched flutes. In the Dance of the Reed Pipes they are offered cakes to go with the coffee and tea.
Tchaikovsky chose to end the Suite with one of the most developed and most inspired numbers in the whole ballet, the splendid Waltz of the Flowers. The unexpectedly passionate cello melody in the very centre of the piece elevates this Valse des fleurs to the very top rank of Tchaikovsky’s orchestral dances.
From Gerald Larner’s files: “Nutcracker Suite/w323”
Miniature Overture
Divertissement
Spanish Dance
Arabian Dance
Chinese Dance
Russian Dance
Dance of the Reed Pipes
Mother Gigogne
Grand Waltz and Finale
The first performances of The Nutcracker, at the Mariinksy Theatre in St Petersburg in December 1892 and January 1893, were well timed. Loosely based on E.T.A. Hoffmann’s story The Nutcracker and the Mouse-King, it is the essential seasonal entertainment, celebrating both childhood and the magic of Christmas. Whatever the season, however, it would not have achieved its present iconic status without Tchaikovsky’s enchanting, inexhaustibly melodious, often playful and yet never condescending music. While it is best known through the Nutcracker Suite compiled for concert use by the composer himself, the ballet score is constructed in such a way and is so consistently inspired that other selections can be at least as effective.
The Miniature Overture, which also opens Tchaikovsky’s own suite, is both perfectly proportioned for a relatively short ballet and, in the absence of such heavy instruments as cellos and basses, most appropriately coloured for the childish delights of the first scenes.
The Divertissement – much of which is familiar from the suite –is the entertainment presented in the second act of the ballet to the little-girl heroine Clara and the Nutcracker Prince on their state visit to the Kingdom of Sweets. The honoured guests are presented with chocolate in a stylish Spanish Dance beginning on trumpet and coloured inevitably by castanets, with coffee in an Arabian Dance by way of a languorously exotic Georgian lullaby, and with tea in a Chinese Dance grotesquely scored for low-pitched bassoons and high-pitched flutes. After they have been amused by clowns in the Russian Dance, they are offered cakes to go with the coffee and tea: the connection between cakes and the flutes so prominently featured in the Dance of the Reed Pipes (nothing to do with fruit and nuts) is based on the fact that the French word “mirliton” means both a toy wind instrument and a pastry filled with whipped cream. The comedy climax to the celebrations is provided by Mother Gigogne – an allusion to a figure not unlike the old woman who lived in a shoe who is represented here by two Parisian street songs
A great composer of waltzes – who owed something of his mastery of the form to Johann Strauss’s seasons at the Pavlovsk Pavilion near St Petersburg – Tchaikovsky wrote three outstanding examples for The Nutcracker. The last of them comes from near the end of the ballet where it leads, by way of a reference on woodwind to the opening of the second act, into the brief but unmistakable “apotheosis.”
From Gerald Larner’s files: “Nutcracker/SCO excerpts.rtf”
March
Dance of the Sugar-Plum Fairy
Trepak
Dance of the Reed Pipes (Mirlitons)
Waltz of the Flowers
When Tchaikovsky conducted the first performance of his Nutcracker Suite in St Petersburg in March 1892 no fewer than five movements had to be encored. If the ballet itself was less successful when it was first staged nine months later, it was partly because of a scenario (based on E.T.A Hoffmann’s Nutcracker and Mouse King) which has a beginning and many picturesque events in the middle but no end. It was partly also because the public, hoping to find a whole score packed with such goodies as they had already heard in the Suite, were inevitably disappointed: there is little else in the ballet as immediately attractive and as easily enjoyable as the eight pieces - five of which are to be performed on this occasion - included in the Suite.
Bearing in mind that the Nutcracker is a relatively short ballet set in a household full of children at Christmas time, the bright little children’s March with its hints of toy trumpets and pipes makes an appropriate beginning. The next three movements come from the second act of the ballet where the child heroine Clara and the Nutcracker Prince are welcomed as guests of the Sugar-Plum Fairy in the Palace of Sweets. The Dance of the Sugar-Plum Fairy features the celesta, an instrument Tchaikovsky had recently discovered in Paris and had imported in secret so that such rival composers as Rimsky-Korsakov and Glazunov would not get to use it first. He makes delightful use of it here, most effectively offsetting its sugary tones with the dark chocolate sound of the bass clarinet and the liquorice of the cor anglais. The contrastingly vigorous Trepak is a traditional Russian dance closely related in style to that in the last movement of the Violin Concerto. As well as being entertained by music and dance, Clara and the Nutcracker Prince are given cakes to eat: the connection between cakes and the flutes featured in the Dance of the Reed Pipes has nothing to do with fruit and nuts but is based on the fact that the French word “mirliton” means both a toy wind instrument and a pastry filled with whipped cream.
Tchaikovsky chose to end the Suite with one of the most developed and most inspired numbers in the whole ballet, the splendid Waltz of the Flowers, the noble main theme of which is anticipated on woodwind in the introduction and, after a harp cadenza, definitively introduced by horns. The unexpectedly passionate cello melody in the very centre of the piece elevates this Valse des fleurs to the very top rank of Tchaikovsky’s orchestral dances.
From Gerald Larner’s files: “Nutcracker Suite/5 mvts”
Miniature Overture
March
Dance of the Sugar-Plum Fairy
Trepak
Arab Dance
Chinese Dance
Dance of the Reed Pipes
Waltz of the Flowers
When Tchaikovsky conducted the first performance of his Nutcracker Suite in St Petersburg in March 1892 no fewer than five movements had to be encored. If the ballet itself was less successful when it was first staged nine months later, it was partly because of a scenario (based on E.T.A Hoffmann’s Nutcracker and Mouse King) which has a beginning and many picturesque events in the middle but no end. It was partly also because the public, hoping to find a whole score packed with such goodies as they had already heard in the Suite, were inevitably disappointed: there is little else in the ballet as immediately attractive and easily enjoyable as the eight pieces included in the Suite.
Bearing in mind that the Nutcracker is a relatively short ballet set in a household full of children at Christmas time, the Miniature Overture is both perfectly proportioned and, in the absence of such heavy instruments as cellos and basses, most appropriately coloured. So is the bright little children’s March with its hints of toy trumpets and pipes.
The next five movements come from the second act of the ballet where the child heroine Clara and the Nutcracker Prince are welcomed as guests of the Sugar-Plum Fairy in the Palace of Sweets. The Dance of the Sugar-Plum Fairy features the celesta, an instrument Tchaikovsky had recently discovered in Paris and had imported in secret so that such rival composers as Rimsky-Korsakov and Glazunov would not get to use it first. He makes delightful use of it here, most effectively offsetting its sugary tones with the dark chocolate sound of the bass clarinet and the liquorice of the cor anglais. The contrastingly vigorous Trepak is a traditional Russian dance closely related in style to that in the last movement of the Violin Concerto.
Clara and the Nutcracker Prince are entertained to coffee In the Arab Dance, the languorously exotic melody of which is derived from a Georgian lullaby, and to tea in a Chinese Dance grotesquely scored for low-pitched bassoons and high-pitched flutes. In the Dance of the Reed Pipes they are offered cakes to go with the coffee and tea: the connection between cakes and the flutes used here has nothing to do with fruit and nuts but is based on the fact that the French word “mirliton” means both a toy wind instrument and a pastry filled with whipped cream.
Tchaikovsky chose to end the Suite with one of the most developed and most inspired numbers in the whole ballet, the splendid Waltz of the Flowers, the noble main theme of which is anticipated on woodwind in the introduction and, after a harp cadenza, definitively introduced by horns. The unexpectedly passionate cello melody in the very centre of the piece elevates this Valse des fleurs to the very top rank of Tchaikovsky’s orchestral dances.
From Gerald Larner’s files: “Nutcracker Suite/8 mvts”
Miniature Overture
March
Decoration of the Christmas Tree
The Kingdom of Sweets
Spanish Dance
Arabian Dance
Chinese Dance
Russian Dance
Dance of the Reed Pipes
Waltz of the Flowers,
Pas de deux
Dance of the Sugar-Plum
Grand Waltz and Finale
Like Coppélia, Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker - his last ballet, first performed only a year before his death - is based on a story by E.T.A. Hoffmann. Not much of Hoffmann’s The Nutcracker and the Mouse King remains, however, in the scenario drawn up by the choreographer Marius Petipa for the Maryinsky Theatre. What the ballet is really about is childhood, the magic of Christmas, the romance of the Nutcracker transformed into a handsome prince when young Clara saves his life by killing the Mouse Kind and, in the second act, the visit of Clara and the Nutcracker Prince to the Kingdom of Sweets.
Bearing in mind that The Nutcracker is a relatively short ballet (originally devised to accompany the one-act opera Iolanta in a double bill), the Miniature Overture is both perfectly proportioned and, in the absence of such heavy instruments as cellos and basses, most appropriately coloured. So is the bright little children’s March with its hints of toy trumpets and pipes. The advantage of the scaling-down is that when the Christmas tree is decorated and illuminated in the next number the music has room to expand to an impressive amplitude.
The remaining excerpts are all taken from the second act. Having set the scene in the wonderfully melodious Kingdom of Sweets, Tchaikovsky turns his attention to the divertissement put on for Clara and the Nutcracker Prince by the Sugar-Plum Fairy. They are entertained to chocolate in a stylish Spanish Dance beginning on trumpet and coloured by the inevitable castanets, to coffee in an Arabian Dance by way of a languorously exotic Georgian lullaby and to tea in a Chinese Dance grotesquely scored for low-pitched bassoons and high-pitched flutes. After clowns have amused them in the Russian Dance, they are offered cakes to go with the coffee and tea: the connection between cakes and the flutes so prominently featured in the Dance of the Reed Pipes has nothing to do with fruit and nuts but is based on the fact that the French word “mirliton” means both a toy wind instrument and a pastry filled with whipped cream. ≠
The principal entertainment in the Kingdom of Sweets, however, is the Waltz of the Flowers which, introduced by a harp cadenza, is one of the most inspired examples of Tchaikovsky favourite dance form. The expressive cello melody in the very centre of the piece elevates it to the very top rank of Tchaikovsky’s orchestral dances - alongside the following Pas de Deux which, devised as it is for characters no more romantic than a confectionary Fairy and a cough-syrup Prince, is an extraordinarily passionate episode developed to symphonic proportions. The entertainment ends with Dance of the Sugar-Plum Fairy which makes a special feature of the celesta, an instrument Tchaikovsky had recently discovered in Paris and had imported in secret so that such rival composers as Rimsky-Korsakov and Glazunov would not get to use it first. He makes delightful use of it here, most effectively offsetting its sugary tones with the dark chocolate sound of the bass clarinet and the liquorice of the cor anglais.
Quite different from the Waltz of the Flowers, the Final Waltz has an imperial swagger to it and the energy to motivate an impressive Finale.
From Gerald Larner’s files: “Nutcracker ballet excerpts/nn.rtf”
Miniature Overture
March
Grandfather’s Dance
Scena: Clara and the Nutcracker
Scena: In the pine forest
Divertissement:
Chocolate
Coffee
Tea
Trepak
Dance of the Reed Pipes
Waltz of the Flowers
Pas de deux
Tchaikovsky didn’t much like the idea of writing a ballet on E.T.A. Hoffmann’s story The Nutcracker and the Mouse King. But, since it had been suggested to him by the director of the Mariinsky Theatre as a suitable double-bill companion to his one-act opera Iolanta, which was eager to have staged there, he reluctantly got on with it. “I am working extremely hard,” he told his brother, adding that he was “beginning to reconcile” himself to it. But he was never really happy with a libretto that lacked the drama and the emotional truth of his other two ballets, Swan Lake and Sleeping Beauty. Reactions to the first performance at the Mariinsky in 1898 apparently confirmed his fears. He would surely be amazed that The Nutcracker is now one of the most popular works of its kind – not least with children, who care little that the plot scarcely makes sense and whose fantasy world is so magically reflected in the music.
The Miniature Overture is a delightful example of the way Tchaikovsky finds exactly the right melodic style and instrumental colouring – in this case woodwind, horns, triangle and strings excluding cellos and basses – for a ballet with a little-girl heroine. So is the bright little children’s March, which adds trumpets and trombones as well as lower strings to the scoring but which is always lightly articulated and playfully rather than solemnly tuneful. So the scene is set for the Christmas celebrations of the Silberhaus family, including the children Clara and Fritz. The next movement introduces Clara’s godfather, Drosselmeyer, who gives the children a nutcracker doll in the shape of a man – a toy to which Clara takes an instant liking but which, with a dramatic gesture from the orchestra, Fritz promptly breaks. Clara attempts to console the nutcracker doll and, to a tender melody on solo flute, sings him a lullaby, only to be noisily interrupted by toy trumpets and drums from Fritz and his boy companions. The evening ends with the traditional last dance, the galumphing Grandfather’s Dance which is enthusiastically taken up by the whole orchestra.
As the Christmas guests depart Clara cuddles her broken nutcracker doll and, to the sad voice of the cor anglais, reluctantly leaves him to go to bed. When everyone else is asleep she comes downstairs to look after him but finds the family drawing room at this time frighteningly unfamiliar, as weird sounds and figurations on woodwind and brass vividly suggest. The clock strikes twelve and, to her horror, its face seems to transform itself into that of Drosselmeyer. She is alarmed too by the sound of scratching mice (represented here by repeated notes on bass clarinet). As an expressive melody enters on violins and is developed to a massive orchestral climax, the Christmas tree grows to an immense size in front of her.
The present selection omits the episode in which the nutcracker comes to life and, helped by Clara to defeat the Mouse King, reveals himself as a handsome prince. He invites her to visit his kingdom. In the pine forest accompanies their journey, illuminated by gnomes with torches and carried on a great surge of romantic melody, through the winter woods at night.
The Divertissement is a series of dances performed for Clara and the nutcracker prince as they are treated to a banquet in the Land of Sweets. They are entertained to chocolate in a stylish Spanish dance beginning on trumpet and coloured by the inevitable castanets, to coffee in an Arabian dance by way of a languorously exotic Georgian lullaby and to tea in a Chinese dance grotesquely scored for low-pitched bassoons and high-pitched flutes. After clowns have amused them in the Trepak (Russian Dance), they are offered cakes to go with the coffee and tea: the connection between cakes and the flutes so prominently featured in the Dance of the Reed Pipes is based on the fact that the French word “mirliton” means both a toy wind instrument and a pastry filled with whipped cream.
The principal entertainment in the Kingdom of Sweets, however, is the Waltz of the Flowers which, introduced by a harp cadenza, is one of the most extended and most attractive examples of Tchaikovsky’s favourite dance form. The expressive cello melody in the very centre of the piece lifts it to the very top rank of Tchaikovsky’s orchestral dances. Even more inspired perhaps is the following Pas de Deux. An extraordinarily passionate episode developed to symphonic proportions, it is so romantic that, although it was written originally for the Sugar Plum Fairy and her Cavalier is often awarded nowadays to Clara and the nutcracker prince.
Gerald Larner © 2011
From Gerald Larner’s files: “Nutcracker/SCO.rtf”
Scena: The Kingdom of Sweets
Scena: Clara and the Prince
Divertissement:
Chocolate (Spanish Dance)
Coffee (Arabian Dance)
Tea (Chinese Dance)
Clowns’ Dance (Trepak)
Dance of the reed pipes
Mère Gigogne
Waltz of the Flowers
Pas de deux
Variation 1 (Tarantella)
Variation 2 (Dance of the Sugar-Plum Fairy)
Final Waltz and Apotheosis
Tchaikovsky didn’t much like the idea of writing a ballet on E.T.A. Hoffmann’s story The Nutcracker and the Mouse King. But, since it had been suggested to him by the director of the Mariinsky Theatre as a suitable double-bill companion to his one-act opera Iolanta, which was eager to have staged there, he reluctantly got on with it. “I am working extremely hard,” he told his brother, adding that he was “beginning to reconcile” himself to it. But he was never really happy with a libretto that lacked the drama and the emotional truth of his other two ballets Swan Lake and Sleeping Beauty. When it was first performed, with Iolanta, in December 1892 the public reaction seemed to confirm his fears: “Apparently the opera gives pleasure, but the ballet not really.” Nowadays, while Iolanta is only rarely performed, The Nutcracker is one of the most popular work of its kind – not least with children, who care little that the plot scarcely makes sense and whose fantasy world is so magically reflected in the music.
In the first act of the ballet, set in the home of the little-girl heroine at Christmas, Clara was presented with a Nutcracker doll, which her brother promptly broke. Getting up in the middle of the night to tend to the damaged Nutcracker, Clara saved it from an attack by the Mouse King, whereupon the doll transformed itself into a handsome Prince who, in his gratitude, invited her to accompany him to his home in the Kingdom of Sweets.
The second act opens with a Scena set in the Kingdom of Sweets where a lollipop of a melody is introduced by the strings and developed with ever more flavoursome orchestration until, near the end of the number, it is delicately coated with icing by the celesta – a then new instrument Tchaikovsky had discovered in Paris and had sent to St Petersburg specifically to represent the Sugar-Plum Fairy, who makes her first appearance here. In the next Scena the Nutcracker Prince narrates in heroic terms the eventful story of how Clara had saved his life. His delighted family orders a banquet to be prepared for them.
The six dances that follow (some of them familiar from the Nutcracker Suite) are presented as a Divertissement performed for Clara and the Nutcracker Prince as they eat. They are entertained to chocolate in a stylish Spanish Dance beginning on trumpet and coloured by the inevitable castanets, to coffee in an Arabian Dance by way of a languorously exotic Georgian lullaby and to tea in a Chinese Dance grotesquely scored for low-pitched bassoons and high-pitched flutes. After clowns have amused them in the Trepak (Russian Dance), they are offered cakes to go with the coffee and tea: the connection between cakes and the flutes so prominently featured in the Dance of the Reed Pipes is based on the fact that the French word “mirliton” means both a toy wind instrument and a pastry filled with whipped cream. A further comedy element is provided by Mère Gigogne – an allusion to a brand of sweets sold in a tin representing a figure not unlike the old woman who lived in a shoe and whose numerous family is represented here by a pair of boisterous Parisian street songs.
The principal entertainment in the Kingdom of Sweets, however, is the Waltz of the Flowers which, introduced by a harp cadenza, is one of the most attractive examples of Tchaikovsky’s favourite dance form. The expressive cello melody in the very centre of the piece lifts it to the very top rank of Tchaikovsky’s orchestral dances – alongside the following Pas de Deux which, devised as it is for characters no more romantic than a confectionary fairy and a cough-syrup Prince, is an extraordinarily passionate episode developed to symphonic proportions. Of the two variations that follow, the first is a short but brilliant Tarantella for the Prince. The second is the uniquely inspired Dance of the Sugar-Plum Fairy which is scored for the celesta with such genius – its sugary sound offset by the dark chocolate of the bass clarinet and the liquorice of the cor anglais – that its place in the orchestra was henceforth unquestionably secure.
The Final Waltz is very different from the Waltz of the Flowers not only because of its stylish hints of the mazurka or even because of its imperial swagger. Its special virtue is that it develops such splendour – while, towards the end, demonstrating such concern for symphonic unity as to refer back to the opening Scena – that it quite transcends the ballet’s fairy-tale origins.
Gerald Larner © 2010
From Gerald Larner’s files: “Nutcracker Act 2/RLPO.rtf”