Music: nutcracker dancing?

[Chumpalumpa]

Hello--what is the best audio cd for dancing to the nutcracker? Most audio Cd's i've listened to are way too fast tempo-wise.

 

Obviously the CD has to include the full score as opposed to the suites that are out there...

 

Thanks.

[Mel Johnson]

Too fast???

 

I find most of the recordings out there too slow! The best thing you can do is burn yourself a personal copy of the score taken from several versions, which might mean that you have Hot Chocolate from one recording, Coffee from another, and the Candy Canes from yet another. And NOBODY plays Waltz of the Flowers quite briskly enough.

[Chumpalumpa]

Too fast???

 

I find most of the recordings out there too slow! The best thing you can do is burn yourself a personal copy of the score taken from several versions, which might mean that you have Hot Chocolate from one recording, Coffee from another, and the Candy Canes from yet another. And NOBODY plays Waltz of the Flowers quite briskly enough.

 

 

really...well I am listening to the one by leonard Slatkin..St. Loius Symphony Orchestra rca complete recordings boxed set SKU: B0000CNTLX ...it is too fast compared to what i am used to...my kids are only age 5&7 in the small children roles in an amateur production...

[Mel Johnson]

Then I can't help you. I don't know what choreography and mime they have to do, so I can't comment

[citibob]

With a computer and a little bit of work, it's not too hard to slow down any Nutcracker track and burn it back to CD. A Macintosh with Quicktime can do this. Or if you don't have a Mac or don't want to spend $$ on software, you can use Audacity: http://audacity.sourceforge.net/. I did this for our professional Nutcracker, and it worked. (In fact, I had to slow down just PART of a track, but leave the rest at the original tempo).

 

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(hmm... looks like I responded to the wrong question below, which is about how one might find the best Nutcracker to listen to.)

 

I would not be surprised if one finds out that the best recording for listening to is not the best recording to dance to. So it would depend on what you want.

 

I would see what the Penguin guide has to say. Their highest honor is a "rosette," and I must say recordings imbibed with this degree in my experience really are worth listening to. As of 1989, they'd given a rosette to two Nutcracker Suite rcordings: http://users.ece.utexas.edu/~perry/fun/music/pgr-comp.html but no recordings of the full ballet.

 

In any case, Penguin Guide is available in most classical music stores. If you don't have access to that, you might consider buying the book from Amazon.com.

 

If you want a recording that you know is danceable by someone, another option would be to buy a Nutcracker DVD that you think has a particularly good performance, orchestra-wise. Of course, most Nutcracker DVDs are reviewed based mostly on their dancing, not their music. I would look at reviews to see if they ever mention the orchestra or the musicality of the dancers. And live performances (which most ballet DVDs probably are) often have a special urgency it's hard to get in a studio recording. Of course a DVD is not the same as a CD. But with a little work, you can convert the audio track to CD or MP3. Or you can decide it's OK to just listen to it in your DVD player.

[Mel Johnson]

After the production is over, why not ask the AD if you can borrow the CD and burn your own copy? Chances will be very good that it's a pastiche of several different recordings, and you will be saved a lot of leg work.

[Chumpalumpa]

With a computer and a little bit of work, it's not too hard to slow down any Nutcracker track and burn it back to CD. A Macintosh with Quicktime can do this. Or if you don't have a Mac or don't want to spend $$ on software, you can use Audacity: http://audacity.sourceforge.net/. I did this for our professional Nutcracker, and it worked. (In fact, I had to slow down just PART of a track, but leave the rest at the original tempo).

 

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great suggestions thanks--I actually tried that..I took the full CD of Leonard Slatkin's full recording with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra...used Soundforge, and time-stretched it by incrreasing the tracks length anywhere from 4-10% longer than the original....I also like the idea of trying to rip audio from a dvd production...and yes...i will also ask my sons' instructor for a copy of the cd used...

[Clara 76]

And welcome to Ballet Talk for Dancers, Chumpalumpa!!! I just realized that you've not been officially welcomed...

 

Please feel free to head over to the Welcome Forum and introduce yourself. And, since you've got a dancing son, the parents of Boys Forum might be to your liking!!!

[Gina Ness]

I like the National Philharmonic Orchestra's complete The Nutcracker conducted by Richard Bonynge (London). A good version for slower tempos that is a "suite" version is the Philadelphia Orchestra's version conducted by Eugene Ormandy (produced by Thomas Frost). Great tempos for the second act...