It’s the holidays. And that means you’ll have countless opportunities to hear Tchaikovsky’s music for The Nutcracker. If you love that music, but have always felt it could use a bit more swing, you should head over to the Pacific Symphony Concerts this weekend at the Renée and Henry Segerstrom Hall. Included in this weekend’s concerts are Duke Ellington’s wildly inventive and satisfying arrangements of this holiday chestnut. The concerts begin on Thursday and continue through Saturday evening.
The concerts open with Brahms’s Piano Concerto #2. The soloist is Markus Groh. Opening the second half of the concert is Ralph Vaughan Williams’s often heard in movies by rarely performed Variations on a Theme by Thomas Tallis.
The program closes, under Carl St. Clair’s direction, with Ellington’s arrangements of Tchaikovsky’s music for the ballet everyone performs around the holidays.
As with many of Duke Ellington’s most beloved compositions, the unsung hero is his co-arranger Billy Strayhorn. “Take the A Train” was written by Strayhorn and it was the signature theme of the Duke Ellington Orchestra. He also wrote such songs as “Chelsea Bridge” and collaborated with the Duke on longer form pieces such as Such Sweet Thunder and The Nutcracker arrangements performed this weekend.
Photo of Duke Ellington and His Orchestra Courtesy of the NY Public Library Digital Collections