THE NUTCRACKER - Complete Ballet for Solo Piano (Tchaikovsky/Taneyev)

Composed by: Pyotr Tchaikovsky (1891-92) Arranged by: Sergei Taneyev (1892) MIDI realized by: Thomas Kobialka (2022-23) TIMECODES: OVERTURE 0:00 - Miniature Overture ACT 1 3:13 - 1. The Christmas Tree 6:59 - 2. March of the Toy Soldiers 9:20 - 3. Children’s Gallop and Dance of the Parents 11:36 - 4. Drosselmeyer’s arrival and distribution of presents 14:12 - [Allegro molto vivace] 14:47 - [Tempo di Valse] 15:50 - [Presto] 16:48 - 5. Scene and Grandfather Waltz 18:04 - [Andantino, The Nutcracker scene] 22:25 - 6. Clara and the Nutcracker 24:02 - [Moderato con moto] 26:10 - [Moderato assai, The Growing Christmas Tree] 28:20 - 7. The Battle 31:28 - 8. A Pine Forest in Winter 34:36 - 9. Waltz of the Snowflakes ACT 2 40:59 - 10. The Magic Castle in the Land of Sweets 45:01 - 11. Clara and the Nutcracker Prince (Divertissement) 49:29 - 12a. Chocolate (Spanish Dance) 50:35 - 12b. Coffee (Arabian Dance) 53:30 - 12c. Tea (Chinese Dance) 54:25 - 12d. Trepak (Russian Dance) 55:26 - 12e. Dance of the Reed Flutes 57:37 - 12f. Mother Ginger and the Polichinelles 1:00:06 - 13. Waltz of the Flowers (Pas de deux) 1:06:38 - 14a. Intrada 1:10:44 - 14b. Tarantella 1:11:24 - 14c. Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy 1:13:34 - 14d. Coda 1:14:46 - Final Waltz 1:17:56 - Apotheosis Yes, it’s that time of year again. Short days. Long, cold nights. Shopping. Asking your family members what they want for Christmas. More shopping. Buying a Christmas tree. Reserving your Christmas dinner. Shopping, shopping, shopping... Though it is easy to be cynical about Christmas, this time of year is also associated with some of the greatest human creations and traditions. One such example is Tchaikovsky’s “Nutcracker Ballet“. Composed between 1891 and 1892, it is possibly the most famous ballet ever written. Though mass media have certainly played a part in making it an inescapable cultural phenomenon, there is no doubt that the Nutcracker’s vivid musical imagery and crystalline beauty is a large reason for why people of all ages and all backgrounds come back to watch and listen to it year after year. Tchaikovsky apparently did not show great enthusiasm for the ballet. While composing it, he wrote in a letter: “The ballet is infinitely worse than The Sleeping Beauty“. It’s not clear to me whether he was referring to his own music or the ballet as a whole (and if it was the former, it has to be remembered that Tchaikovsky was his own worst critic, and under immense work pressure at the time). Nevertheless, Tchaikovsky’s music was immediately successful with the public, though the ballet was criticized for having a “lopsided“ libretto when it premiered on the 6/18 December 1892 (at the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg). There were two piano arrangements of The Nutcracker ballet made before its premiere, by Taneyev and Tchaikovsky respectively. Piano arrangements were in high demand at that time, mainly because the lack of record players meant that people’s only means of “listening“ to a piece of music was by playing it on the piano. In the case of ballets or operas, piano arrangements also served as the musical accompaniment for rehearsals. The arrangement used for this video is the first of the two arrangements, written by Sergei Taneyev, a past student and friend of Tchaikovsky (he would go on to teach Scriabin, Rachmaninoff and Medtner, among others). Whilst Taneyev’s arrangement is supremely faithful to the original score’s orchestration, Tchaikovsky found the arrangement so difficult to play that, in the summer of 1892, he set out to make his own simplified arrangement. Taneyev’s arrangement is indeed so difficult that I wouldn’t be surprised if Tchaikovsky felt forced to make his own arrangement so as not to overwhelm the rehearsal pianist (though I don’t have any hard evidence for this). Still, ever since setting eyes on Taneyev’s arrangement, I had always been curious how it sounded. Nobody had ever recorded it in full. Stephanie McCallum recorded a selection in 2011, and a MIDI version of the complete ballet was released very recently. Since I am not Marc-Andre Hamelin, rather than play it I decided to make my own MIDI “performance“, which is what you hear in the video. Ultimately, the aim of this video is to show The Nutcracker through a different lens. And I hope that you will agree that even when you reduce it to one instrument, The Nutcracker loses little of its magic and still holds up as one of the greatest ballets. Enjoy the music! (...and Merry Christmas!) SOURCES: (letter in which Tchaikovsky calls Taneyev’s arrangement “so hard that it’s unplayable“ [того трудно, что нельзя играть]