Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky The Nutcracker ( Full Ballet) Score

There s a certain irony in how the two pieces by Tchaikovsky that are the most popular nowadays are pieces that he wrote strictly on commission, and didn t think too highly of himself. The first, the 1812 Overture, was featured earlier on this channel, in a recording complete with genuine muzzleloading cannons. The second is his score for the ballet The Nutcracker. Commissioned by Ivan Vsevolozhsky, director of the Imperial Theatres, as a followup to The Sleeping Beauty, Tchaikovsky again collaborated with Marius Petipa, who adapted The Story of a Nutcracker by Alexandre Dumas, itself an adaptation of The Nutcracker and the Mouse King by Hoffmann. Tchaikovsky essentially wrote music to a framework supplied by Petipa. The original production was not a success, mostly due to issues with the dance performance and story, rather than Tchaikovsky s music. Although constrained by the demands that his music follow the form of the dancing, Tchaikovsky neverthe