It all starts on Christmas Eve, when Clara’s mysterious uncle presents her with a nutcracker. Later that night, it comes to life as a prince …
Gloriously colourful and imaginative, Tchaikovsky’s score for the ballet Nutcracker casts an irresistible spell in this performance by the Berliner Philharmoniker, conducted by Sir Simon Rattle. “We fell in love with this music, rehearsing and performing it,” Rattle has said, “and we think it’s magic.”
● ● ●
“When I listened to the Berlin Philharmonic’s drop-dead gorgeous new two-CD set, I heard this beautiful, inventive and fanciful music for the first time.” - NPR
“The playing of the Berlin Philharmonic is superb …every detail is there, perfectly realised and balanced.” - Guardian
“The Berlin Philharmonic plays superbly, Rattle characterising the first act’s scenario and its emotional fluxes with a sure hand and finding a deft touch for the dances in the second. This is a performance that really makes The Nutcracker come alive as a dramatic and musical entity.” - Daily Telegraph
“The bravura sequence of dances in Confiturembourg has authentic fizz: the shrill Chinese Dance comes with a peppery underpinning of bassoons, while the celesta in Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy acquires an almost sinister glow.” - Independent on Sunday
