Aside from the monumental Messiah by Handel, there cannot be a classical work that is so associated with Christmas than Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Suite. Virtually every ballet company has it in its repertoire and proudly performs it during the holiday season. Most people will recognize its use in Disney’s Fantasia with those Chinese mushrooms and Cossak celery stalks. Or were they rhubarbs? What most people do not know is that the suite was first performed before the debut of the full ballet. The suite was an instant hit but the opera didn’t fare all that well. Nowadays both are doing quite fine, thank you.

This version, which is in the public domain, is a classic in its own right. It is Leopold Stokowski conducting the Philadelphia Orchestra and was recorded on November 26, 1934. Although originally released on 78rpm acetate, these MP3 files was superbly transfered by F. Reeder and sound as crisp and clear as you could possibly get from these old records. This is an outstanding recording for your holiday season.

The work is available from the Internet Archive’s 78rpm collection in MP3 format as 64kbps or VBR, also in the 64kbps range. The low bitrate is perfectly acceptable considering the age of the recording. You can also download it in Ogg Vorbis format if desired. The Archive’s 78rpm collection has added a ton of outstanding classical music performances that are now in the public domain so it is worth a look around. Of course, I’ll be searching for the best ones and will feature them in the near future.

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