Back in the vinyl era, just in time for the 1960 Christmas season, the Columbia label released The Nutcracker Suite, giddy arrangements of music from Tchaikovsky’s ballet by the jazz greats Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn. Some of Ellington’s titles track the original more closely than others (here “Overture,” “Entr’acte,” and “Chinoiserie,” there “Toot Toot Tootie Toot,” “Sugar Rum Cherry,” and “Dance of the Floreadores”). For a holiday treat, Gustavo Dudamel serves up Act One of the Christmas tale as written—that’s the act that tells the story—with Ellington’s bonbons as a chaser. We can’t wait.
—Matthew Gurewitsch