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A Nut for All Seasons

Jason Victor Serinus on December 17, 2010
The Nutcracker

"Fresh" is not a word often ascribed to America's perennial balletic holiday ritual. But Sir Simon Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic's enrapturing recording of the complete score of Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker is a glowing exception. The delight with which they approach this wondrous music stands apart from the deadened spirit that often leaves orchestras grinding out "The Nut" with the same lack of excitement usually reserved for that annual obligatory visit to dreadful Aunt Tillie.

From the first sharp accents of the Miniature Overture, Sir Simon and the Berliners signal an open-eyed alertness to new possibilities. Although the tempos are almost universally slower than in Antal Dorati’s classic recording with the London Symphony Orchestra, virtually every phrase seems to burst with energy.

Rattle recently said, in a interview in The Wall Street Journal, that he and the Berliners decided to do The Nutcracker “as a symphonic piece … rather than imagining what the ballet dancers would have to do, because that's another art." Nonetheless, his recording dances out of a good sound system with all the colors and visuals of a great balletic performance.

Listen To The Music

The Kingdom of Sweets

Scene in the Pine Forest

The recording perspective is distant, with lots of bass warmth and resonant glow from the Philharmonie Berlin replacing up front and close glisten. Instruments are a bit muted until spotlighted by multiple mikings.

The reason for the performance’s success soon becomes clear. As one irresistible melody after another leads us into a fantasy universe, you know that the musicians are already there. They have fallen in love with this music. Through their love, we sense how miraculous it was that Tchaikovsky, just a year before his death, managed to write an uplifting ballet whose emotional outlook was the mirror opposite of his own.

I’m not going to tell you when the noisemakers start, but the effect is hilarious. So is the gunshot. The beginning of the Scene in the Pine Forest is filled with grace, and its climax substantial. The arrival in the Kingdom of Sweets is absolutely magical, the strings in the Arabian Dance (Coffee) diaphanous and seductive.

The beginning of the Waltz of the Flowers may want for a bit more spark, but when it begins to swirl, we swirl with it. The Final Waltz and Apotheosis are like proverbial icing on the cake. It would have been nice to have liner notes that include a summary of the action — perhaps they’re available in EMI’s deluxe edition — but this is one recording where the music tells its own story. Everyone save Scrooge will eat it up.