Do you have any musical items on your lifelong wish list? Something you’d be sad if you reached the end of your days and never got to hear? I do! I’d love to attend a performance of Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker, the full ballet, with full-on Russian choreography and a live orchestra (sometimes, in smaller venues, ballet companies perform to recorded music). Here is the Bolshoi in 2011, performing a wonderfully arresting version of the great ballet. This is some amazing stuff!
And if you don’t have time for the entire thing (make time!), you can always enjoy the condensed Suite that Tchaikovsky put together. I’ve written before of what this suite means to me on a personal level, as one of my fondest musical memories.
I have seen this performed locally a minimum of four times. I've concluded that the solo takes by the principals after the stirring musical conclusion (roughly (1:26:00 of this recording), are just overkill. Just send Clara home.
That said, you've provided me with lots of music to listen to. I played the Nutcracker yesterday. Today, the sweet, I mean the suite, Lanza, and Luddy 7.