The Chicago Orchestra’s 1892 Premiere of Tchaikovsky’s “The Nutcracker Suite”

One of America’s most beloved holiday artistic traditions originated in imperial Russia and came to the United States through Chicago at the time of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition. On October 22, 1892, an audience of Chicagoans—joined by distinguished guests in town for the World’s Fair Dedication Day exercises—gathered in the Auditorium to hear a concert by the Chicago Orchestra conducted by Theodore Thomas. During the third piece on the program, songs of waltzing flowers, terpsichorean reeds, and a sugar-plum fairy, joined by melodies evoking Russia, Arabia, and China, danced into the imaginations of rapt listeners. They were the first audience outside of Russia to hear Tchaikovsky’s new composition, The Nutcracker Suite. The ballet would not have its premiere for another two months.

“A large and distinguished audience”

Having founded the Chicago Orchestra in 1891, musical director Theodore Thomas planned the 1892–93 season to include twelve concerts of symphonic music as well as eight evenings featuring compositions of lighter character. With these “popular concerts,” Maestro Thomas hoped he could “silence the complaints heard last year of the programs being ‘too heavy,’” announced the Chicago Tribune (Oct. 2, 1892).

A concert at the Auditorium theater on Saturday, October 22, 1892, opened the second season of the Chicago Orchestra (now called the Chicago Symphony Orchestra). The hiring of several new musicians pleased music lovers in the city who had high hopes that Chicago’s new cultural institution soon would achieve the status of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. “Mr. Thomas has seldom if ever provided a more enticing popular programme than he has for this occasion,” wrote the Daily News (Oct. 22, 1892), “and a large and distinguished audience, such as always adds brilliancy to a musical entertainment, will be present to give the new season a successful send off.”

The Chicago Orchestra’s season opener served as the coda of a spectacular week of celebrating the inauguration of the World’s Fair. The concert hall of the Auditorium still wore the splendid decorations from the grand Inaugural Reception ball held the previous Wednesday night, at which John Philip Sousa and his new band provided music for hundreds of national dignitaries and other distinguished guests. On Friday, October 21, the largest gathering of humans ever assembled under one roof sat inside the biggest building in the world for the Dedication Day ceremonies on the fairgrounds. Theodore Thomas, Director of the Bureau of Music at the Columbian Exposition, debuted his Exposition Orchestra, the Chicago Orchestra expanded with additional musicians. Joined by Sousa’s Band, other military bands and drum corps, and several choruses, the musicians on stage numbered 5000! The exercises on Friday “were more satisfying to the eye than to the ear,” recorded George H. Wilson, Secretary of Bureau of Music. Back in the Auditorium for their Saturday evening concert, the Chicago Orchestra worked with more manageable numbers and superior acoustics.

“The Auditorium will doubtless be crowded, and the event promises to be brilliant from society’s standpoint as well as from the point of view of the musicians,” advised the Chicago News Record (Oct. 22). Among those listening to the American premiere of the Nutcracker Suite were the Columbian Exposition’s Director of Works Daniel Burnham and President of the Board of Lady Managers Mrs. Potter Palmer; architects Louis Sullivan, William Le Baron Jenney, and George A. Fuller; sculptor Edward Clark Potter; organist Clarence Eddy; and department store magnates Marshall Field and Harry Selfridge. John Philip Sousa—who had conducted his band in Jackson Park on Friday afternoon for the Dedication Day Ceremony and earlier on Saturday for the Dedication of the New York State Building—likely was in the audience, too. After attending the Nutcracker Suite premiere, he may have begun arranging some of the tunes in his head.

Conductor Thomas was greeted by a full house in the enormous theater. Attendees completely filled the parquet, boxes, dress circle, and balcony and spilled into the standing room. “To one who remembers the discouragingly small audiences that attended some of the concerts of the Chicago orchestra last year,” observed the Evening Journal (Oct. 24, 1893), “the great audience which greeted Mr. Thomas and his musicians Saturday night cannot but suggest the thought that the attendance at such performances is governed largely by adventitious circumstances.” While recognizing that the city was “full of strangers” this weekend, the paper asserted that what really filled the seats was the effort to program for the popular tastes of the local concert audience.

“The program arranged by Conductor Thomas for the occasion is popular, brilliant and contains several novelties,” promised the Chicago News Record (Oct. 22). In addition to the Nutcracker Suite, the audience that evening was treated to four other works having their American or Chicago premieres. These included Johann Strauss’s new waltz Seid Umschlungen, Millionen! (1892), four selections from Moritz Moszkowski’s new opera Boabdil, Der Letzte Maurenkönig (1892), Pietro Mascagni L’Amico Fritz (1891), and Franz Liszt’s Angelus (1877–82). The concert opened with the overture from Carl Maria von Weber’s opera Der Fretschuetz (1821), followed by Frédéric Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 2 “Marche Funebre” (1840), which had been added to the program to honor the memory of Chicago Orchestra patron George William Curtis. Rounding out the concert were Rossini’s William Tell Overture (1829) and Adrien-François Servais’ Fantasia for Violoncello “O Cara Memoria” (1860).

“Painted with great care”

The sensation of the evening, however, was the new work by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, given under the French title Casse Noisette. The Chicago audience was hearing his music for the Nutcracker two months before the ballet would premiere on December 18, 1892, at the Imperial Mariinsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg. Critics at the Russian premiere would write harsh reviews about the ballet, though praise the music. One commented that “it is a pity that so much fine music is expended on nonsense unworthy of attention, but the music in general is excellent.” [Peterburgskaya Gazeta Dec. 19, 1892, p. 4; translated and reprinted in Wiley (1991) 221] Tsar Alexander III attended the dress rehearsal and was so pleased that he summoned the composer to his box and lavished him with compliments.

Tchaikovsky had spent two years on this project. Following on the success of ballet Sleeping Beauty (1889), the composer received a commission from the director of the Imperial Theatres for another ballet based on a children’s tale. The new work, intended for the 1891–92 season, would be based on Alexandre Dumas’ adaptation of the children’s story “The Nutcracker and the Mouse King” by E. T. A. Hoffmann. Tchaikovsky biographer Roland John Wiley posits that had the composer “known what miseries he would endure while writing it he would surely have refused.” Tchaikovsky worked on the new score throughout 1891, even while on tour in Europe and the United States. In April 1891, he complained of being “simply sick from despair, fright, and the most evil melancholy” about his task to set the Nutcracker to music. [Letter from Tchaikovsky to Ivan Vsevolozhsky Apr. 15, 1891, quoted in Wiley (1984) 417] Mounting pressures eventually forced a postponement of the Nutcracker ballet to the 1892–93 season.

Having promised the Russian Musical Society a new work for their concert scheduled for March 1892, the composer decided to compile a selection of eight numbers from the ballet-in-progress. This Nutcracker Suite, Op. 71a, intended as an orchestral concert piece separate from the full ballet score, ultimately is the version heard by most audiences. While the Nutcracker Suite was mentioned by the Russian press as early as November 15, 1891, the first notice about the new composition in American newspapers seems to have been in early 1892. A syndicated news story reported that, in a “moment of feverish excitement” prior to hospitalization for a nervous condition, Tchaikovsky had thrown into a fire the overture and fragments of music to a ballet titled Casse Noisette (along with his score for the opera The Voyevoda) but that the work “was saved by the timely intervention of a friend.” [“Musical World”] The rescue of this manuscript changed the course of music history, as this piece would become one of Tchaikovsky’s most beloved works and the most often performed ballet in the world. In January and February of 1892, Tchaikovsky completed his orchestrations and then conducted the premiere of the Nutcracker Suite on March 19 for the Saint Petersburg branch of the Russian Musical Society. The composition proved so popular that the esteemed audience asked for encores of each number in the concert. For a second performance, in Moscow on July 16, Vojtěch I. Hlaváč, professor of music at the Imperial University in Saint Petersburg, conducted. As a special guest at the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago the following summer, Prof. Hlaváč would have another opportunity to conduct the suite.

For the American premiere on October 22, 1892, the Chicago Orchestra performed Tchaikovsky’s full suite of eight songs in three movements:

1. “Overture Miniature”

2. Danses Characteristique

a. “Marche” (“March”)

b. “Danse de la Fee Dragee” (“Dance of the Sugar-Plum Fairy”)

c. “Trepac, Danse Russe” (“Russian Dance”)

d. “Danse Arabe” (“Arabian Dance”)

e. “Danse Chinoise” (“Chinese Dance”)

f. “Danse de Mirlitons” (“Dance of the Reed Flutes”)

3. “Valse des Fleurs” (“Waltz of the Flowers”)

A synopsis of the new work, printed in slightly different forms in the Chicago News Record (Oct. 22, 1892) and Inter Ocean (Oct. 23, 1892) and seemingly derived from orchestral program notes, describes the composition:

The Tschaikowsky suite, around which interest centers, is a series of miniature pictures painted with great care. The overture, bright and dainty, is scored without violoncellos and double basses, and this absence of the heavier strings, to a degree, determines its character. The March is divided into a military theme given to the wind instruments, alternating with a second phrase given to the strings, and a middle movement which might be called a trio and which is built up on a similar exchange between flutes and violins. An occasional comical crash and some piquanteries in the scoring are sufficient to exclude the idea of a grand march. The Danse de la Fee Dragee is another bit of instrumental legerdemain, at the close of which the sweet fairy seems to dart out of sight. The dance theme is given to a ‘celeste’ (a keyed instrument with steel tongs in the place of wires) or a piano. The Russian Dance has all the characteristic, monotonous sway which is peculiar to the popular melodies of the Slav. It is strictly music for the dance, not food for the brain. The Danse Arabe is not less characteristic. Minor in mood, the melody sings along in thirds, with those florid cadences which are the sine qua non of Arabic music. In utter contrast is the following Danse Chinois. The Celestial is, as far as I know, never presented in composition by any characteristic Chinese music, but a kind of universally accepted caricature seems to answer the purpose. Mr. Chinaman skips onto the stage to the fagatto’s [bassoon] kiddish capers, and tone is relegated to the screeching piccolo and flute. The Mirlitons are furnished with a kind of “staccato polka,” cleverly worked up, while the Danse des Fleurs is a valse, having in parts a Strauss-like swing.

The suite’s musical imagery of China, Arabia, and Russia (however ethnographically inauthentic) must have charmed an audience anticipating the international displays being constructed in Jackson Park for the great Exposition the next summer.

“A divinely marvellous sound”

Nestled in these program notes is a brief mention of the keyboard solo in the “Dance of the Sugar-Plum Fairy” being scored for either a celeste or a piano. The former instrument would have presented a mystery to any audience in 1892, as few had heard its name and even fewer had heard it played.

While on his way to the opening of Carnegie Hall in New York in 1891, Tchaikovsky visited Paris, where he reported to his publisher Pyotr Jurgenson about discovering “a new orchestral instrument, something between a small piano and a glockenspiel with a divinely marvellous sound.” [Letter from Tchaikowsky to Pyotr Jurgenson Jun. 3, 1891; translated and reprinted in Wiley (1991) 228] The cèleste (in French, or “celesta” in its more common Italian spelling), named for its celestial sound, was the invention of French harmonium and organ maker Auguste Victor Mustel (1842–1919), who had patented the novel instrument in 1886. Mustel had unveiled the Celesta No. 1 orchestral model at 1889 Exposition Universelle in Paris and was awarded a gold medal by the jury. Enchanted by the ethereal sound, Tchaikovsky immediately ordered one, but advised Jurgenson: “I would prefer it to be shown to nobody, for I am afraid that Rimsky-Korsakov and Glazunov will get wind of it and use its unusual effects sooner than me.” Tchaikovsky was indeed among the earliest composers to incorporate the celesta into orchestral works, first in his symphonic poem The Voyevoda (1891) and the following year in what would become the instrument’s most famous showpiece to this day—The Nutcracker Suite.

Although the new celesta was heard at a few European concerts, American audiences attending the premiere of the Nutcracker Suite in Chicago would have been unfamiliar with it, and the Chicago Orchestra likely had no access to the instrument in 1892. So, for the October 22 concert, the solo part in the “Dance of the Sugar-Plum Fairy” instead was performed on piano by the acclaimed Viennese-American musician and composer Mr. W. E. C. Seeboeck (1859–1907). To hear the delightful tune played on a celesta, Chicago audiences would have to wait … but not for long.

“Abounding in color and sensuous beauty”

The Chicago press praised the concert and the Tchaikovsky premiere. “The foreign visitors cannot but be impressed by the finish and uniform excellence of the work of this truly great band,” offered the Chicago Times (Oct. 23, 1892) about the season opener. “The programme was all that the most ardent lover of music could wish for,” wrote Figaro magazine. “Theodore Thomas received an ovation which must have convinced him that the public are delighted with the promises he has made regarding the season’s repertory, the chief feature of which will be an increased number of popular programs.” The Chicago Orchestra succeeded at “winning the enthusiastic commendation of a brilliant and distinguished audience,” wrote a reviewer for the Inter Ocean (Oct. 23, 1892), who thought the Tchaikovsky premiere was “one of the interesting features of the programme.”

“Of the new selections,” wrote Evening Journal (Oct. 24, 1893), “the suite from Tschaikowsky’s ballet the Nutcracker was undoubtedly the most striking and it is sure to become very popular. It abounds in odd effects that are at times positively funny, but it is melodious throughout and by the variety of its themes keeps the listeners interest wide awake from beginning to end.” A critic for the Chicago Tribune (Oct. 23, 1892) reported that the entire concert was “auspicious and brilliant” and offered this review of Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Suite:

Melodious and rhythmic, and abounding in color and sensuous beauty, the suite proved to be one of the most attractive among the lighter works the great Russian has produced. Its charm is due largely to the skill displayed in orchestration, odd and bizarre effects being frequently employed. This is especially the case in the six dances. The Russian Trépac is a boisterous rhythmic ‘bit’ for the entire orchestra; but in good contrast is the Dance Arabe which follows it and which is mournful and slightly weird in character. The Chinese Dance is a merry joke, the clown of the orchestra, the bassoon, being unfailingly and conspicuously present. The Dance de la Fée Dragée is a dainty little conceit, the piano (played last evening by Mr. Seeboeck) being used to good effect, and the Danse des Mirlitons has a catchy air that is orchestrated and harmonized so as to possess piquancy and brightness. The Overture, Marche, and the Valse are less peculiar in style than are the dances, but are rendered attractive by their tunefulness and the skill in instrumentation revealed in them.

The Chicago Times (Oct. 23, 1892) praised the suite for being “rich in modulation” and “full of fine scoring.” Special praise went to the “light and airy” Overture and to the ending of the Dance of the Sugar-Plum Fairy, which “well expresses the character of the composition.” About the Arabian Dance the Times noted that it “is written in a pastoral style, mainly on a pedal point and contains the elaborate cadences so striking in Arab music.” The paper thought that the Waltz of the Flowers was “the least original of the suite,” though “contains some pleasing and raking harp passages.” A critic from the Chicago News Record (Oct. 24, 1892) thought that Tchaikovsky’s suite was “worth hearing a number of times, both for the genuine beauty of several of the themes and for the aptness with which the composer has made pictures out of sound. Part of the music may be effeminate and the pictures are all genre pictures, but interest is held throughout.”

“Worth hearing a number of times”

Chicagoans did not have to wait long to hear a reprise of Tchaikovsky’s new work. On March 20, 1893, the Auditorium again was transformed into the Land of Sweets with a performance of the Casse Noisette suite during the third in a series of “People’s Concerts” given by the Chicago Orchestra for 4000 wage workers in the audience. On April 15, art critic Amy Leslie summed up the successful second season and praised the numerous works—including the Nutcracker— premiered by Maestro Thomas:

“That the attendance has been uniformly complimentary, the concerts eminently artistic and instructive are facts of immediate interest to every student and lover of music. Hopes that Chicago has proved herself more worthy these splendid treats than she did last year animate the vote of gratitude coming from those who have enjoyed each concert so earnestly. Many new compositions have found their road to the classic programmes prepared by Mr. Thomas—Greig’s No. 2 Peer Gynt Suite, Liszt’s Légende, one of Mascagni’s intermezzos, Xaver Scharwenka’s Mataswintha vorspiel, Tschaikowski’s Casse Noisette ballet suite, a song by Svendson and fete descriptions by Tinel and several works by old masters produced for the first time. … It has been a charming pastime for those who could look upon so august an undertaking in that pleasant way and most invaluable assistance to those who viewed it in graver lights.”

While serving as the Director of the Bureau of Music for the 1893 World’s Fair, Theodore Thomas established the Exposition Orchestra as a premier resident musical group, using the 86 members of the Chicago Orchestra as its nucleus and expanding the ranks to 114 musicians (and sometimes even larger for major events). “Without doubt, the Columbian Exposition Orchestra, as organized and conducted by Mr. Thomas, has never been surpassed in its peculiar field by any orchestra in this country,” wrote World’s Fair historian Rossiter Johnson. Mr. Thomas and his orchestra, however, had a tumultuous season at the Fair. Even before Opening Day on May 1, the conductor/director was in hot water with the Exposition’s Board of Directors over an instrument use policy; the messy controversy became known as the great “Piano War.” Battles expanded into other issues, including Thomas’ musical programming choices. Tensions over “serious” versus “popular” musical offerings that had simmered with the Chicago Orchestra during the 1891–92 season boiled over on the fairgrounds. Calls for Thomas to resign began in May, and on August 4 the embarrassing quarrel concluded when the musical director resigned. Mr. Thomas considered his involvement with the World’s Columbian Exposition to be one of the “great disappointments” in his life.

Dulcet sounds of the Nutcracker Suite rose above all this turmoil at the Fair, where the piece received tremendous exposure. The Exposition Orchestra performed it at least nine times, including as part of the “Popular Orchestra Series” concerts on May 10 in Music Hall and on May 26, June 22, and August 9 in Festival Hall; on May 27 for a concert in the Woman’s Building; and on July 8 for the second “Popular Orchestra Concert” held in the Music Pavilion on the lakefront. After Maestro Thomas resigned, the Exposition Orchestra was split temporarily into two divisions. One part performed the Nutcracker Suite during an afternoon concert on August 17 held inside the bustling and cavernous Manufactures and Liberal Arts Building—certainly an inadequate setting for both musicians and their audience. After the musicians reunited the following week into a single orchestra under the baton of Mr. Max Bendix, they performed Casse Noisette once again at their August 25 concert in Festival Hall.

“A novelty was introduced”

Perhaps the highest-profile performance Tchaikovsky’s new work came on August 3, as part of a special concert of Russian music in Festival Hall to celebrate “Russia Day” at the Fair. The Exposition Orchestra performed the Nutcracker Suite under the baton of Vojtěch I. Hlaváč, who had conducted the second Russian performance back in July of 1892. This performance at the World’s Fair included a notable addition to the orchestra’s instrumentation—M. V. Mustel’s celesta. The Chicago Record (Aug. 4, 1893) offered this description of the unique keyboard instrument:

“In Tschaikowsky’s delightful Casse-Noisette suite, a novelty was introduced in the shape of a new instrument of French invention, known as the ‘celesta.’ It produces a delicate tone, something between that of a harp and a softly tapped bell.”

A celesta was on display at the Fair in the section of French musical instrument manufacturers, potentially bringing Mustels’ invention into public view for tens of millions of visitors … if only they could find it. This part of the French exhibit was so large that there was not enough space for it inside the Manufactures and Liberal Arts Building, so the musical instruments ended up being displayed in the west gallery of the Electricity Building. Lending the celesta for use by the Exposition Orchestra in Festival Hall brought its sound to the ears of the thousands in the audience of this World’s Fair concert. This may have been one of the first concerts in the United States to feature a celesta. When the instrument was played in a concert at the 1904 World’s Fair in St. Louis, organizers claimed that the musical novelty was being “heard for the second time in the United States.”

From this introduction at the 1893 World’s Fair, the celesta grew into a musical instrument familiar to—though not always identifiable by—the public, in compositions ranging from Gustav Holst’s The Planets to “Won’t You Be My Neighbor” from Mr. Rodgers’ Neighborhood to John Williams’ “Hedwig’s Theme” for the Harry Potter movies.

Nutcracker on the march

Popularity of the Nutcracker Suite also grew. Soon after the Chicago premiere, audiences in other cities had opportunities to hear the new work. Theodore Thomas brought his Chicago Orchestra to Ann Arbor, Michigan, on November 21, 1892, and performed the piece along with most of program from his October 22 concert in Chicago. They performed the piece again for a New Year’s Eve concert in Cleveland.

Tchaikovsky’s confection soon spread to other musical groups as well. Anton Seidl conducted an abridged Nutcracker Suite for his Metropolitan Orchestra, beginning with a concert at the Lenox Lyceum in New York on November 6, 1892, and then throughout an East Coast tour that took the orchestra to Buffalo, Ottawa, Montreal, Philadelphia, Portland and other cities well into the spring of 1893. Seidl’s concert suite included only six pieces of what he titled Ballet of Nutcracker Automatons, omitting the “Dance of the Sugar-Plum Fairy” and the “Arabian Dance.” Conductor Walter Damrosch also used this abridged six-part Nutcracker Suite when the Symphony Orchestra of New York performed in concerts in late November and early December. The Musical Yearbook of the United States 1892–93 records that Tchaikovsky’s Casse Noisette suite was performed a total sixteen times during the concert season, presumably by these various orchestras.

A particularly interesting early arrangement came from the hand of the “March King,” who brought his version of the Nutcracker Suite to the World’s Fair in Chicago. After (likely) listening to the U.S. premiere in October 1892, John Philip Sousa quickly adapted the new Tchaikovsky score for his own use. His version of the Nutcracker Suite was comprised of just three songs—the “Russian Dance,” “Chinese Dance,” and “Dance of the Mirlitons” Advertisements billed the arrangement as “miniature pictures painted with infinite grace and care.” The Sousa Band premiered their Nutcracker at the Columbian Musical Festival in Boston on May 5, 1893, and performed it several more times while touring on their way to the World’s Fair, including in Syracuse (May 8), Buffalo (May 9), Detroit (May 10), Kansas City (May 14), Omaha (May 15), Minneapolis (May 18), and Duluth (May 19). A reporter for the Detroit Free Press wrote that:

There is something inimitable about these miniature pictures. If one of the old composers, Beethoven or Hayden, could listen to them, they would throw up their hands in amazement, so subtle are the effects of orchestration and so different from the results obtained by the early composers, who were masters where grace and simplicity were concerned.

The Sousa Band took up residence at the World’s Fair from May 22 to June 28 and performed daily. They played their abridged Nutcracker Suite at least a few times, including for a concert on June 10 to celebrate “Travelers’ Protective Association Day” at the Fair. John Philip Sousa seemed to earn popularity on the fairgrounds that had eluded Theodore Thomas. “It is foolish to try to play above the heads of one’s listeners,” advised Sousa while performing at the World’s Fair. [“Leader Sousa”] Although the quote was widely interpreted as a jab at Thomas, the two conductors shared a great admiration for each other and shared a place in history as early promoters of the Nutcracker on the American musical stage.

One week after the close of the World’s Columbian Exposition, the Sousa Band was back in Chicago performing at the Trocadero on November 6. As he led his band once again in the Nutcracker Suite, John Philip Sousa did not realize that he was conducting a requiem for the great Russian composer a thousand miles away.

“I know how much you have done for me”

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky died in Saint Petersburg on the morning of November 6 [Old Style October 25], 1893. The composer had no greater champion in the United States than Theodore Thomas, who had conducted the world premiere of his Piano Concerto No. 2 at a Philharmonic Society concert in New York on November 12, 1881, and the American premiere of his Symphony No. 5 at the Chickering Hall in New York on March 5, 1889. For the inaugural concert of his new Chicago Orchestra on October 16, 1891, Thomas chose Tchaikovsky’s Concerto No. 1 for Pianoforte and Orchestra.

In his role as Director of the Bureau of Music at the World’s Columbian Exposition, Thomas had invited Tchaikovsky to attend the Fair in Chicago. In May of 1892, George H. Wilson, Secretary of Bureau of Music, requested $12,500 from Exposition officials to support bringing six eminent European composers, Tchaikovsky among then, to the Fair the following summer. The goal was to “establish for our country a prestige not otherwise obtainable.” Wilson claimed that “the interest awakened by a visit to the Exposition of these men who rank among the first in music in the world, would be universal and would result in large financial returns for the exposition.” It was not to be. Tchaikovsky had already written to Thomas on May 17 regretting that he could not accept the invitation due to financial constraints. He closed his letter with: “I know how much you have done for me, that is to say, for my music, in America. Please, respected, kind, dear Sir and friend, do not doubt that I am truly grateful.”

In addition to the Nutcracker Suite, Thomas programmed more than two dozen other Tchaikovsky works for the Exposition Orchestra concerts of 1893. The composer also contributed a small to a musical gift to support the Children’s Building at the Fair (see “Tchaikovsky’s Tribute to Children for the 1893 World’s Fair”). Thought not present at the World’s Fair, the Russian composer was well represented.

“Nobody performs it nowadays”

“For a lot of people, Tchaikovsky is The Nutcracker, but not the ballet in full, only the suite from it,” choreographer George Balanchine told musicologist Solomon Volkov. This was certainly true for Americans from the time of the 1893 World’s Fair until the middle of the twentieth century. After the Chicago Orchestra’s inaugural performance of the suite in October 1892, the Evening Journal promised that the piece was “sure to become very popular.” It sure did. Perhaps a faint echo of the American premiere can be heard on a recording made on November 28, 1939, when the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (renamed in 1913) conducted by Frederick Stock performed the Nutcracker Suite in Orchestra Hall. Originally released on the Columbia label, the recording remains available on compact disc.

The following year, a delicious sampler from Walt Disney changed the course of Nutcracker history. The second segment of Disney’s Fantasia (1940) features selections of the Nutcracker Suite (omitting the “Overture” and “March”) and, importantly, uses the songs as a score for a set of ballet scenes—though danced by animated fairies, mushrooms, blossoms, fish, and thistles rather than humans. Still, this was the first wide exposure of the Nutcracker ballet to an American audience. Introducing the segment, narrator Deems Taylor states:

You know it’s funny how wrong an artist can be about his own work. Now the one composition of Tchaikovsky’s that he really detested was his Nutcracker Suite, which is probably the most popular thing he ever wrote. It’s a series of dances taken out of a full-length ballet called the Nutcracker and was once composed in the St. Petersburg Opera House. It wasn’t that much of a success, and nobody performs it nowadays, but I’m pretty sure you’ll recognize the music of the suite when you hear it.

While the Nutcracker Suite had by 1940 become a staple of the orchestral repertoire, the full ballet went unperformed in the United States until a 1944 production by the San Francisco Ballet. Ten years later, George Balachine launched his formative Nutcracker with the New York City Ballet, which has performed it annually ever since. In the decades to follow, the Nutcracker phenomenon snowballed until the Russian immigrant became one of America’s most cherished holiday traditions. To correct Mr. Taylor’s Fantasia speech: Everybody performs it nowadays! Coming full circle is Christopher Wheeldon’s Nutcracker for the Joffrey Ballet of Chicago, featuring a delightful new story by Brian Selznick set at the 1893 World’s Fair.

Whether or not the Nutcracker’s originators “are rolling in their graves,” posits dance historian Jennifer Fisher, “each new incarnation, from professional to amateur to Nutcrackers on ice, claims imperial Russian parentage.” Chicago and the 1893 World’s Fair can also claim an important place in the Nutcracker family lineage.

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SOURCES

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