Nutcracker rocks!

I can't believe it took me this long to realize there was good music beyond Tchaikovsky's spoon-fed Nutcracker Suite. Now that I've heard the complete ballet, I love the other movements more than the usual fare you hear from it. IMHO, it is the best ballet music ever, better than Sleeping Beauty or Swan Lake.

From overture to final, the music is timeless, story-telling, passionate, dream-like, and perfect - just exactly the effects you want for a fairy-tale ballet. In fact, I can't think of another piece of program music that has left such an impression on me. Sorry, Berlioz.

Just love the crashing climax at end of Clara and the Nutcracker, and the battle scene in The Nutcracker meets the Mouse King.

I could go on forever.

Pete, you outdid yourself.

Thanks,

Yup... it's overplayed, it's abused, it doesn't have alot of involved development.... and it still kicks ass. It's just one of those irreplacable, one-of-a-kind things that can't be explained, even other composers who can outdo Tchaikovsky look at pieces like this, and think 'how, why? what makes this happen? Can't be explained... it just IS'

We toured like maniacs and released six albums, and from time to time we had some of our songs played on the radio. We never fit in too well in the rock world, but many people were kind enough or not conspicuously cool enough to worry about such things

For the last 11 years I have conducted the Nutcracker Ballet here in central N.J. Each year I dread opening the score to once again prepare for the rehearsals. It is the kind of piece that becomes so familiar that one gets tired of it. It is also a difficult piece and needs extreme concentration, especially in the first act.

Once I arrive in the pit with my orchestra ready to go and the rehearsal starts, the piece becomes as fresh and exciting as the first time it performed it. It does have that magic.

Ira Kraemer