Our musician of the week is Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky from the Romantic Era. We listened to selections from his famous ballet, The Nutcracker, including March and Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy (Div. 1’s flashlight performance in the Virtual Winter Concert). Other famous pieces from this ballet include Waltz of the Flowers, Trepak, and Chinese Dance. Many have made movie adaptions based on this, including a 1990 version and a more recent 2018 version. Take time to watch a movie adaptation, ask your family if they’ve heard of or even seen this ballet live, and remember how to pronounce the name “Tchaikovsky” (chai-cough-ski)!
We discussed another famous ballet called Swan Lake (we watched the Dance of the Little Swans). You can watch the full ballet here! We also watched an excerpt from the 1812 Overture, with canons (sometimes replaced with fireworks) timed to match the music. It has been VSO‘s tradition to end with the 1812 Overture when they play at Deer Lake Park in the summer. Hope you’ll get to see it one summer after COVID!
