Leader, Leonard Hirsch
Conductor, Eric Fogg
Reginald Shipway (clarinet) Tchaikovsky, who is usually associated (perhaps rather unjustly) with serious and melancholy music conceived on a big scale, has written one work that may well be called a masterpiece of light music-the ' Nutcracker ' Suite. In 1891 Tchaikovsky was commissioned to write an opera and a ballet for the St. Petersburg Imperial Opera. The scenario for the ballet was based on E. T. A. Hoffmann's
Christmas Fairy Tale-' Nutcracker and Mouse King It is divided into two acts. The first deals with a Christmas party. The guests arrive and the children receive their presents, among which is a nutcracker in the shape of a little wooden man. When the party is over the little girl, Clara, creeps downstairs to play with the toys, particularly the Nutcracker. She falls asleep and dreams of a battle between an army of mice led by the Mouse King and an army of tin soldiers led by the Nutcracker, who is later transformed into Prince
Charming. The second act takes place in the Prince's Enchanted Castle where festivities on a grand scale are in progress, a part of which consists of a number of costume dances. These dances are now chiefly known in the form of the ' Nutcracker ' Suite.