Alistair McCauley, having seen more than two dozen different productions of The Nutcracker around the country, has listened to eleven complete recordings and distinguished the ones that dance from the ones that don’t. His favorite is the third recording that Antal Dorati made, in 1974.

My final choice, however, is Dorati. In the Concertgebouw he has the most miraculous orchestral playing of all: the moment the strings enter their first phrase in the (Sugar Plum or Féedragée) adagio is just the most sensational, and there are many such inspiring moments throughout. The main reason to love this recording, however – and I keep returning to it, the last of three by Dorati – is to feel his sense of the shape of each dance and its place in this whole: the dances have the lift and sweep of footwork within them, the waltzes are buoyant, and the internal drama is moment by moment in motion. If ever I lost interest in this music, it is to this sublime recording I would return to recover it.

Drop me a line at rjk@dailyblague.com
This entry was posted on Monday, January 3rd, 2011 at 6:00 pm.