Leader, Alfred Barker
Conducted by CRAWFORD McNair
Tchaikovsky's ' Casse Noisette ' (Nutcracker) Suite contains some of the daintiest ballet music ever written. The whole work is, of course, much longer than the Suite, which contains only some of the best numbers, and lasts for a considerable time when presented on the stage.
The story of the ballet is taken from
E. T. A. Hoffmann's fantastic fairy-tale
' Nutcracker and Mouse-King '—this
Hoffmann being the Hoffmann of Offenbach's opera—and is of a type that seems very much to appeal to Russian artists and audiences.
The complete ballet was first produced in St. Petersburg in 1892, and the Suite was introduced to England by Sir Henry Wood at a Promenade Concert in 1896.