Tchaikovsky - The Nutcracker

Vladimir Jurowski, State Academic Symphony Orchestra of Russia ‘Evgeny Svetlanov’

Having already given us critically-acclaimed modern accounts of The Sleeping Beauty and Swan Lake, Vladimir Jurowski and his Russian State Symphony Orchestra ‘Evgeny Svetlanov’ at last reach that perennial ballet favourite The Nutcracker. It’s difficult to remember a time when this work wasn’t a sure sign of the approach of Christmas. Yet it is only since the 1940s that the complete ballet rather than the celebrated Suite won its way into audiences’ hearts, having been less than a resounding success on its St Petersburg premiere in December 1892. It may lack the epic sweep of The Sleeping Beauty or the intense beauty of Swan Lake, yet The Nutcracker, for all its narrative lopsidedness, has an abundance of charm all its own, and when given complete by sympathetic performers it can be uniquely winning.

Vladimir Jurowski has fast developed into one of the greatest of present-day Tchaikovsky conductors (his recording of the Fourth Symphony with the LPO was recently picked by Gramophone magazine as the top recording), and this latest disc certainly secures his position. His orchestra (the former USSR Symphony Orchestra of which Svetlanov was chief conductor for many decades) still has a discernibly Russian flavour to it, even if the formerly wayward brass and woodwind are now more disciplined and blended. The rawness they still bring to this music often reminds one of the most successful theatre orchestras of the past, and Jurowski’s reading of The Nutcracker successfully combines a symphonic sweep with a palpable theatrical atmosphere, aided by a well-focused recording.

The performance opens with a delightfully poised account of the Overture, woodwind and strings delicate but nimble, and the antiphonally divided violins bring real benefits, opening up Tchaikovsky’s masterly scoring and revealing the many passages where phrases are tossed to and fro from section to section. ‘The Decoration of the Christmas Tree’ has a very homely feel to it, and the March is brisk and alert but without exaggeration, the woodwind once again fabulously deft, the exchanged phrases in the upper strings excellently done. As Act 1 progresses, the manifest strengths of the performance become ever more apparent: there is a sense of steadily growing excitement from the arrival of the mysterious guest Herr Drosselmeyer onwards, while the ‘Grandfather Waltz’ has a delightful old-school swagger to it. Once the party guests have disappeared, the real enchantment begins, yet all the while Jurowski retains sight of the larger formal arc, so that the grand climaxes are superbly integrated into the whole. The toy sound effects (such as the pop of the gun that sets off the bedroom ‘Battle’ between the mice and the gingerbread soldiers) are tastefully done, while the cascading string chords have real bite to them. After Clara and the Nutcracker manage to rout the forces of the Mouse King, magic again descends with a superbly atmospheric picture of the Pine Forest and an utterly winning account of the ‘Waltz of the Snowflakes’, enhanced by the Sveshnikov Boys’ Choir of the Moscow Choral School.

Jurowski carries forward the sense of narrative arc into Act 2, and here the fun really begins, with superbly characterised dances in the Divertimento. The Spanish, Arabian and Chinese dances have plenty of flavour, while the much-loved Trepak has a uniquely Russian authenticity to it, bracing yet expertly controlled. The flutes and cor anglais in the ‘Dance of the Reed Pipes’ outclass just about all their rivals on disc for musicality and grace as well as magic, and the dance of Mother Ginger and her Polichinelles is toe-tappingly infectious. It is in the ‘Waltz of the Flowers’ and the following pas de deux for the Prince and the Sugar-Plum Fairy that Jurowski’s symphonic sense of pacing really pay dividends, for they feel like a wholly natural outcome of the way he has shaped the ballet up to this point, yet they retain that very theatrical feel established at the outset. For a last dose of chocolate-box magic, the Tarantella and the ‘Dance of the Sugar-Plum Fairy’ (the latter with excellently balanced celesta) work their unerring charm, before the ‘Final Waltz’ and Apotheosis combine imperial grandeur and childlike rapture in ideal measure.

At a generous 86 minutes, this marvellously played and thrillingly captured performance provides strong competition for other single-disc Nutcrackers from Gergiev and Järvi. For its combination of an authentically Russian soundworld, real theatrical flair, fabulous engineering, superb formal control and a real sense of delight in the music as well as the story, it now surely clinches the top spot, alongside Jurowski’s marvellous accounts of the other two ballets. For a 2019 stocking-filler, look no further!