The Nutcracker is an 1892 two-act "fairy ballet" set on Christmas Eve at the foot of a Christmas tree in a child's imagination.
The music is by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, his Opus 71. The plot is an adaptation of E. T. A. Hoffmann's 1816 short story The Nutcracker and the Mouse King.
The ballet's first choreographer was Marius Petipa, with whom Tchaikovsky had worked three years earlier on The Sleeping Beauty, assisted by Lev Ivanov.
Although the complete and staged The Nutcracker ballet was not as successful as had been the 20-minute Nutcracker Suite that Tchaikovsky had premiered nine months earlier, The Nutcracker soon became popular.
PERFORMANCE
Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Ernest Ansermet
00:00:00 | Intro
00:00:27 | Miniature Overture
00:03:36 | Tableau I -----
00:03:37 | The Christmas Tree
00:07:17 | March of the Toy Soldiers
00:09:59 | Children's Gallop and Dance of the Parents
00:12:19 | Arrival of Drosselmeyer
00:17:26 | Scene and Grandfather Waltz
00:27:03 | Clara and the Nutcracker
00:36:49 | The Battle
00:40:21 | Tableau II -----
00:40:22 | A Pine Forest in Winter
00:43:58 | Waltz of the Snowflakes
00:50:52 | Tableau III -----
00:50:53 | The Magic Castle in the Land of Sweets
00:54:40 | Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy
00:57:08 | Clara and Nutcracker Prince
01:01:50 | Chocolate: Spanish Dance
01:03:12 | Coffee: Arabian Dance
01:06:24 | Tea: Chinese Dance
01:07:31 | Trepak: Russian Dance
01:08:53 | Dance of the Reed Flutes
01:11:31 | Mother Ginger and the Polichinelles
01:14:18 | Waltz of the Flowers
01:20:51 | Pas de Deux -----
01:20:52 | Sugar Plum Fairy and Her Cavalier
Variation I: Tarantella
Variation II: Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy
01:26:49 | Coda
01:28:34 | Final Waltz and Apotheosis