35th day of Christmas

It's Jeff here, for the first time writing on this blog.

Tchaikovsky was the first classical composer that I ever listened to. I bought a tape, at random, from the 747 Music Store in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia (where my family lived for several years) and it was  Tchaikovsky's 2nd Symphony. I liked it so much that I went back and bought the rest of the series! Tchaikovsky developed my passion for symphonic music and it holds a special place for me today (much to my sister's chagrin!).   I like Tchaikovsky's compositions for the same reason I like a lot of other symphonic music- Tchaikovsky can capture in his music everything from deep emotion to moving pictures. If you listen, you can hear the story in the music.

For this last "Instrumental Saturday" in our musical celebration of Christmas, I want to include excerpts from the Nutcracker. The overture is iconic Christmas music, as is the Waltz of the Flowers and Dance of the Sugarplum Fairy. And for my red-haired Mennonite wife, I had to include the Russian Dance!