The Nutcracker

We are so excited to start a 4-part series welcoming the holidays with special 4-hand piano musical selections! In this episode, we start with a delightful work by Italian composer Ottorino Respighi titled "Noël d'enfant" (A Child's Christmas). We then play 2 selections from Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's holiday ballet suite, "The Nutcracker": 'Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy' and 'Dance of the Mirlitons'. A mirliton, by the way, is the name of a French "onion flute" (a toy flute) as well as a French pastry. Tchaikovsky himself wrote this 4-hand piano version in addition to his orchestral suite. One notable difference in this performance is that instead of staying in strict time that ballet dancers normally require, we take a cue from famed Russian cellist/conductor Mstislav Rostropovich and the Berlin Philharmonic and play these selections with more musical freedom to emulate the feelings of watching ballet dancers on stage.

This episode was brought to you by Cunningham Piano, one of America's oldest piano stores with locations in King of Prussia, PA, Cherry Hill, NJ, and Delmar, DE. Cunningham Piano provided a magnificent Bösendorfer 214 VC 7' grand piano for us to perform on.

https://cunninghampiano.com