Tchaikovsky | The Nutcracker - Waltz of the Flowers for Solo Piano (Op 71) (Nobuyuki Tsujii)

Pyotr Tchaikovsky (Пётр Чайкoвский)
The Nutcracker (Ballet), Op 71, "Waltz of the Flowers" ("Вальс цветов")
Performed by Nobuyuki Tsujii (辻井 伸行)
Sheet Music Source: IMSLP
imslp.org/wiki...
Noboyuji Tsujii is a concert pianist who has toured the world, often praised for his ability to learn and perform virtuosic classical music despite his microphthalmia. He began touring from an early age, and graduated Ueno Gakuen University (上野学園大学) with a degree in piano performance in 2011. He has won various international awards, and signed with Deutsche Grammophon in 2024. Here's his website! avex.jp/tsujii/
The Nutcracker is the last of Tchaikovsky's three ballets, and easily one of his most well-known works. Its subject is E. T. A. Hoffmann's 1816 "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King." The piece is often performed as a condensed suite, though the Waltz of the Flowers is usually played in both the ballet and suite. The piece takes place in the Land of Sweets in Act II; after various other performances, the protagonist Clara, with the Prince, watches a group of flowers perform this waltz. The ballet was also arranged for solo piano by Tchaikovsky, and that arrangement is what is being played in this performance. In this era, orchestras were something of a rarity, and so many orchestral scores were arranged for piano in order to make compositions more accessible.
Because it is often only played around Christmas-time, The Nutcracker is one of the few popular classical pieces that has not been overplayed so much that I cannot stand to listen to it. It is quintessential Tchaikovsky, straddling the Romantic and Impressionistic eras with both melodic and harmonic grandeur. This year, I decided to finally learn some of it for piano (quite early, because of my disastrous schedule), but I was incredibly surprised that it is quite under-performed for solo piano. I would think that one of the most popular ballets of all time would have plenty of piano renditions, but Tsujii's performance was one of only a few, though it is a fantastic performance. There were some pieces from the ballet that I struggled to find studio or concert piano recordings of; I'm really unsure why this is the case.

[@aloisjavora3505]

Vzletná a krásná skladba.😊

[@stravinskky]

넘 좋다ㅜㅜ

[@stravinskyfan]

who arranged this?

[@wgiauque]

This is actually Tchaikovsky's own arrangement for solo piano, published by P. Jurgenson. For whatever reason this arrangement lacks some of the well-known melodic flourishes seen in the orchestral score, so it really is an arrangement rather than an orchestra reduction.

[@mookiesdream1]

I think that’s the Schirmer Edition. There are other editions that have more of the original Music in it.

[@stravinskyfan]

@@wgiauque that's interesting. thank you for the info