THE B.B.C. ORCHESTRA
(Section D)
(Led by LAURANCE TURNER )
Conducted by EDWARD CLARK
The story of the ballet entitled Casse-Noisette was founded on the tale by the German author, E. T. Hoffmann (the Hoffmann made doubly famous as the hero of Offenbach's opera), of The Nutcracker and the Mouse-King. The music for the ballet was commissioned from Tchaikovsky in 1891 for production at the Opera at St. Petersburg. This suite is made up from the best numbers in the ballet, not all the music of which is of the same high value. It was arranged by the composer himself, and first reached England in 1896 when Tchaikovsky's music was very little, if at all, known. We do well to remember that an indefatigable pioneer of Russian music in those days was Sir Henry Wood , and it was at a Promenade Concert conducted by him that London heard for the first time with rapturous delight the ever popular Casse-Noisette.
This Symphonic Poem, Overture as it was originally called, was first suggested to Tchaikovsky by his older colleague Balakirev. Tchaikovsky and Kashkin, a friend who afterwards wrote memoirs of Tchaikovsky, were walking togethei in the country one day, when the idea came to Balakirev; he thought Tchaikovsky the very man to make a success of such a work. His idea was to have an introduction, something after the style of a choral, which should present Friar Lawrence. Then the music would quicken to tell of the feud hetiween the two families, and a lyric melody would represent the two young lovers. The whole thing was to be worked out in orthodox form and finished with a representation of the death of the lovers. The piece was composed pretty much on those lines, but on its first performance it met with a very damping reception, and, at a later date, during a holiday in Switzerland, Tchaikovsky altered it considerably. After that it was still further revised, and it is in its latest form that we know it now.