"The Nutcracker Suite" From "Fantasia"

[musicradio77]

As you know, I have the "Fantasia" soundtrack on both LP and CD. I should rather listen to that particular cut which is quite appropriate for the holiday season. "The Nutcracker Suite". According to the original 1957 3-LP set, Deems Taylor wrote in his liner notes:

The full length ballet "The Nutcracker" by Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky was composed for the St. Petersburg Opera House, where it was first performed in December 1892. In the "Fantasia" version, you will find no Nutcracker, the first two movements have been omitted and the original order of the movements has been altered. In devising the animated screen pictures to go with the music, Walt Disney and his staff envisioned the suite as a ballet of nature in six scenes, danced by plants and flowers.

As you know, "Fantasia" with the animation used in the "Nutcracker Suite" was different, but the whole music was associated with Christmas and holidays.

The LP version contain 4 movements from the "Fantasia" version which was heard on the first record on side 1 contains "Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy", "Chinese Dance", "Dance of the Reed Flutes" and "Arab Dance". It was on last cut on side 1. On record two, the continuation features "Russian Dance" and "Waltz of the Flowers". Those are the movements from the "Nutcracker" are still being played during the holidays.

Anybody remembers the "Fantasia" version of the "Nutcracker Suite"?

 

[Steve Carras]

Interesting that this one's brought up here because I had downlaoded off of WinMXC a nunber f SPike Jones rcordings including (as on one of several LPs opf his that I own!) HIUS 7 minuite version of "Nutcracker"..this has usually just the elements found in Disney's verison PLUS the Nutcracker march (you know, like "Da-diddle-da-da-DA-da-da, Da-diddle-da-da-DA-da-da",etc. The rather annoying Smurfberry crunch 1980s cereal ad at the height of guess what little blue race of men's Saturday AM populairty on NBC used that as the music for their vocal jingle...possibly the only good thing alongwith said cereal about THAT franchise..that and that it saved NBC................Disney's own network,getting back on topic.), but SPike's version DOESN't include that lovely waltz!! (I think the entire version..the entire suite is close to an hour...kind of like Richard Strauss's (composed-at-same-time, despite what "2001"/Kubrick fanatics tripping out might have thought in 1969!), of "Also Sprach Zarauthustra" which is MUCH MUCH more than just that famous fanfare.)..)