Customer Reviews

The Nutcracker: Complete Ballet for Solo Piano (Dover Music for Piano)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a book I've been looking for for years: the original piano arrangement of the entire Nutcracker Ballet score. The score harbors many delightful pieces that are not included in the ubiquitous Nutcracker Suite, such as the music for the scene around the Christmas tree, Grandfather's Dance, the Pas de Deux, and the Valse Finale. The arrangements are by Taneeff, and revised by the composer. The score has been reprinted from a rare copy in 2005. The piano arrangement is playable for advanced amateur pianists (this is NOT a Nutcracker-made-easy version), and cleverly done: it has the feel of a piano score, not of a reduced orchestra score. (Nutcracker lovers familiar with the Concert version of the ballet music will find slight (and interesting) discrepancies, but the music from the Concert version is all there, albeit in a somewhat different order. The only funny part of the arrangement is that the upper register seems to have been left out in the complex music of the fight between the nutcracker and the mouse king.)

The music itself is magnificent, and I must thank the last reviewer on an excellent post. However the quality of the book is quite poor. The binding is cheap and the pages are very thin and have a newsprint feel making quick page turns difficult. I recommend having the book spiral- bound at an office supply store. For the everyday pianist, the book is great, however the professional ballet accompanist should seek out a higher-quality score.

This is an unabridged republication of the complete ballet for solo piano edition originally published by P.Jurgenson in 1892, arranged by the master contrapuntalist and a close friend of Tchaikovsky, Sergey Taneyev, and revised by the composer himself. Amazon's description says, somewhat misleadingly, '...specially designed to be relatively easy to play', but beware this is not an arrangement for beginners or children. Easiest scores included here requires at least the same level of technical ability to play, say, Schumann's Kinderszenen. Fast scenes like 'The Battle of the Mouse King' are more taxing to play. Many of other scenes and dances involves arpeggios and broken chords spanning wide, which require intermediate level of skills.

The arrangements are all brilliantly done, in the original keys of the orchestra score, capturing the magical atmosphere of the orchestral version, if not as spectacular as Mikhail Pletnev's arrangement of Nutcracker Suite. For example, Taneyev's arrangements of the Transformation Scene, The Dance of the Reed Pipes, The Dance of Sugar-Plum Fairy, The Flower Waltz, and Pas de deux are really wonderful played on the piano. The basic parts of the original orchestral score are all covered faithfully, so it can be used for ballet rehearsal. More advanced players may use this score as a basis for more ambitious arrangement adding wood wind, or brass parts which are missing in some of the dances and the scenes.

Just got this a few days ago. I agree with the other viewers. This is a wonderful piano edition of the nutcracker. It is somewhat challenging but fun. It is amazing how Tchaikovsky preserves the richness of the music in converting it to piano.

The reason I gave this only 4 stars was the binding. This should be spiral bound as there are 167 pages. I guess for the price, beggers can't be choosers