Orchestra of the Bolshoi Theatre Moscow, Alexander Vedernikov - Tchaikovsky: The Nutcracker (2006) [DSD64] DSF + HDTracks

During a journey through Italy in 1882, Peter Tchaikovsky received a parcel in the post from a friend containing a book with the fairy tale Nutcracker and the Mouse King. This was, however, in the French adaptation Histoire d’un casse-noi- sette, which AlexandreDumas senior had published in 1844. The original by the German author E.T.A. Hoffmann was published at Christmastime in 1816, and was included at the time in the collection Die Serapionsbrüder. A contemporary review stated that the text was hardly a fairy tale, “but the rogue only takes on the mask of the child, in order to make fun of decent people by means of words and ges- tures in an even more amusing man- ner”. This story depicts “a complete world with all its fantastic objects, the way this presents itself to the fearful, innocent and yet greedy soul of a child (of the girl Marie of noble birth) in a delightful dream”: i.e. as a battle of the good (the dolls and toys) against the evil (the mice in the girl’s bedroom) in a fantastic Kingdom of Sweets, to which Marie is transport- ed through mysterious doors by the Nutcracker, her Christmas present.