Saturday, December 25, 2010

A Christmas classic in a new performance


Before Warner Bros. figured out that cartoons could reach two audiences simultaneously, the writer Ernst Theodor Wilhelm Hoffmann was composing stories that had philosophy and life lessons for the parents and for the kids, action and fantasy that borders on the hyperbolic.
One story that Hoffman wrote that will forever be associated with this time of year is Nussknacker und Mausekönig or The Nutcracker and the Mouse King. Peter Tchaikovsky took this tale of the helpful god-father Drosselmayer, the evil mouse king and children in peril and turned it into a Christmas classic.

Hear Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker this Sunday afternoon, featuring a new recording with the
Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra and their music director, Simon Rattle. The curtain rises at 3pm
right here on member supported KPAC and KTXI.

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