Tchaikovsky: The Nutcracker

LPA

1. Overture
2. Act I: No. 1 The Decoration of the Christmas Tree
3. Act I: No. 2 March
4. Act I: No. 3 Children’s Galop, and Entry of the Parents
5. Act I: No. 4 Arrival of Drosselmeyer
6. Act I: No. 5 Grandfather Dance

LPB

1. Act I: No. 6 Scena
2. Act I: No. 7 Scena (Battle)
3. Act I: No. 8 Scena
4. Act I: No. 9 Waltz of the Snowflakes

LPC

1. Act II: No. 10 Scena – Confiturembourg
2. Act II: No. 11 Scena
3. Act II: No. 12 Divertissement (a) Chocolate
4. Act II: No. 12 Divertissement (b) Coffee (Arab dance)
5. Act II: No. 12 Divertissement (c) Tea (Chinese dance)
6. Act II: No. 12 Divertissement (d) Trepak
7. Act II: No. 12 Divertissement (e) Flutes
8. Act II: No. 12 Divertissement (f) Mother Gigogne

LPD

1. Act II: No. 13 Waltz of the Flowers
2. Act II: No. 14 Pas de deux - Variation I – Tarantella
3. Act II: No. 14 Pas de deux - Variation II – Sugar-Plum Fairy and coda
4. Act II: No. 15 Final waltz and Apotheosis

“Tchaikovsky's ballets form a wonderful part of his musical expression – perhaps the most wonderful of all … Such were my thoughts as I listened to this enchanting new recording of the Nutcracker by André Previn and the LSO. As an account of the music it seems to me a wonderfully judged combination of skill and affection … [It] is certainly a performance whose strength comes from its simple eloquence – and there is nothing that can make any music sound better than that … There is a poised and sustained rapture about this performance from end to end that is the very definition of good conducting.”

Gramophone, January 1973