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One of the paragraphs in my initial posts mentioned the Mravinsky’ own version of the Nutcracker suits. A few days ago I discovered a performance of it that I did not head. It was on 12 October 1977 by Mravinsky with his Leningrad Philharmonic, live in Tokyo. The recording is some kind of bootleg and I was trying listening it 3 times with no desire to listen more then 2 movements - it juts was not impressive and almost "contrived" -  nothing like the 1946 performance. However, last night I loaded the CD again I my car and for whatever reasons I went to the last movements. The rest movements, all of them were very mediocre BUT the famous “Pas de Deux”  Scene #14 (Sugar-Plum Fairy and the Prince Orchade from Second act) was nothing short of stunning. Holly cow, people conduct Mahler in this way, not Tchaikovsky! Still, somehow Mravinsky brilliantly goes away with it, making his version of Nutcracker bombastically-elegant, I juts wish the rest of the movements were a deserving match to the Mravinsky's Scene #14…

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