Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
The actress Prunella Scales is the narrator on this Naxos release which is unashamedly aimed at the children's Christmas market. Two seasonal works fill 64 minutes--Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite and Rimsky-Korsakov's Christmas Eve Suite. Scales is rather a plummy mother. Her elegant diction comes from a bygone dinner-party era. She sounds kind and warm but also somewhat distant as if she were the sort to employ a third party actually to bring the children up. One imagines her obedient junior audience demurely sitting in rows, not making a sound, restraining themselves even as the "Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy" twinkles magically from the speakers. Children may find this lap-forbidding. Nikolai Gogol wrote the story for Rimsky-Korsakov's opera Christmas Eve. A blacksmith fools the devil, obtains a pair of the Empress' slippers and wins the initially reluctant hand of the prettiest girl in town. Rimsky-Korsakov's music is more incidental to, and dependant on, the story than Tchaikovsky's, which may be performed without. Michael Halasz conducts the Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra in the Tchaikovsky, Igor Golovschin the Moscow Symphony Orchestra in the Rimsky-Korsakov. All very charming in a children-should-be-seen-and-not-heard sort of way. --Rick Jones
PYOTR ILY'ICH Tchaikovsky Nutcracker Suite from the ballet 1. Overture 2. March 3. Dance of the Sugar-Plum Fairy 4. Russian Dance 5. Arabian Dance 6. Chinese Dance 7. Dance of the toy trumpets 8. Waltz of the Flowers 9. Finale NIKOLAY RIMSKY-KORSAKOV Christmas Eve Suite from the opera 10. Introduction 11. Procession of the Comet 12. Devil's Dance 13. Vakula woos Oksana - Polonaise 14. Ovsyen and Kolyada 15. Vakula and Oksana
By : Igor Golovschin | Format: Audio CDPrice : £3.97
Product Details
- Orchestra: Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra, Moscow Symphony Orchestra
- Conductor: Michael Halász, Igor Golovschin
- Composer: Nikolay Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov, Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky
- Audio CD (1 Oct 1999)
- Number of Discs: 1
- Label: Naxos
- ASIN: B0000517A3
- Other Editions: MP3 Download
Nutcracker & Christmas Eve
Costumer Reviews
It really is true that the narration style of Prunella Scales is cool and restrained, but that is entirely in keeping with the tone of her script. The music sparkles, and The Nutcracker is complete of memorable tunes that kids warm to. Can it hold up against all the competition for kids' attention at Christmas? I feel it most likely can.
My 7 year olds loved this CD. The narration is typically too long-winded to maintain their attention, but other than that it is a amazing cd. I advise it.
Nutcracker & Christmas Eve
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