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Donald Macleod explores the rich vein of fairy tale and fantasy in Tchaikovsky's music. Today, The Nutcracker and the work it was originally double-billed with - the opera Iolanta.

"It's a pity that so much fine music is expended on nonsense unworthy of attention", wrote the critic of the St Petersburg Gazette after the premiere. "Infinitely poorer than The Sleeping Beauty", was Tchaikovsky's own verdict on what's proved to be probably his most popular ballet. But his lack of enthusiasm for The Nutcracker is hardly surprising, given the major headache its composition caused him. In fact Tchaikovsky became so depressed by the "colourless, dry, hasty and wretched" music he felt he was producing that he begged the Director of the Imperial Court Theatre, Prince Vsevolozhsky, to release him from his contract. Fortunately for us, Vsevolozhsky persuaded Tchaikovsky to summon up the inner strength necessary to complete his score. Why did it give him so much trouble? Part of the problem may have lain in his initial reservations about the project - in particular what he judged to be an unsatisfactory adaptation of ETA Hoffman's original story of The Nutcracker and the Mouse King by Alexandre Dumas senior. Tchaikovsky had no such doubts about the plot of the one-act opera that somewhat curiously shared the bill with The Nutcracker in its opening run, Iolanta - based on Henrik Hertz's one-act play King René's Daughter.

The Nutcracker, Op 71; Act 2 No 14c Pas de deux: Variation II, The Dance of the Sugar-Plum Fairy
London Symphony Orchestra
Antal Doráti, conductor

Iolanta, Op 69; No 6, scene and aria of Robert; No 6a, Romance of Vaudémont
Alexey Markov, baritone (Robert)
Sergei Skorokhodov, tenor (Vaudémont)
Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra
Emmanuel Villaume, conductor

The Nutcracker, Op 71; Act 1
London Symphony Orchestra
Antal Doráti, conductor

Produced by Chris Barstow.