Maestro Classics & Storyteller Jim Weiss Present THE NUTCRACKER with the London Philharmonic Orchestra

It's a match made in heaven for the holidays! Maestro Classics™, winner of over 50 prestigious awards for its Stories in Music™ series of recordings, has joined forces with America's premier storyteller, Jim Weiss -- winner of more than 100 national awards -- and the London Philharmonic Orchestra to create Maestro Classics' twelfth album for family listening, a brilliant, one-hour, child-friendly rendition of Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker.

It is Christmas Eve, and Clara and Fritz's parents are giving a holiday party. The children breathlessly await the arrival of a mysterious guest, the toymaker Herr Drosselmeyer, who finally appears with life-size dancing dolls to entertain the family and their guests, but he saves his most special gift -- a nutcracker doll -- for his goddaughter Clara. That night, magic steals through the house, the tree begins to grow, the toy soldiers and the Mouse King engage in battle, and Clara's nutcracker turns into a handsome prince.

Master storyteller Jim Weiss uses his beautiful voice, familiar to children around the world, to great effect in this retelling of the Nutcracker story. The Maestro Classics adaptation of the ballet score not only stands on its own two feet as a remarkable listening experience, but also, along with the accompanying, illustrated activity booklet, provides a wonderful way to prepare for an outing to the ballet to see The Nutcracker performed. Listening to the album afterward will stimulate children's imaginations as they recreate their memories of the live performance.

Conductor Stephen Simon leads the London Philharmonic Orchestra to deftly capture the essence of each of Tchaikovsky's evocative moods in Maestro Classics' version of The Nutcracker. It is in the familiar dances that the spectacular sound quality of the orchestra takes center stage in perfect sync with Jim Weiss' narration. The listener's ears are beguiled by the sparkling rhythms of the Spanish Dance, the slinky clarinets and soto voce violins in the Arabian Dance, the brilliant flutes and piccolo in the Chinese Dance, the ensemble precision in the Russian Dance, the way the winds tiptoe through the Dance of the Reed Pipes, and the elegant manner in which the Mother Ginger episode is styled, but everything truly comes together in what could arguably be considered the loveliest and most engaging music penned by Tchaikovsky, The Waltz of the Flowers.

Jim Weiss has been a storyteller for over 25 years. His company, Greathall Productions, has produced 48 storytelling recordings with such enticing titles as Greeky Myths, King Arthur, Sherlock Holmes, and George Washington: First in the Hearts of his Countrymen. Jim Weiss has received more than 100 national awards from the American Library Association, Parents' Choice, NAPPA, The Parents' Council, Oppenheim Toy Portfolio, Film Advisory Board, Parents' Guide to Children's Media, and more.

Maestro Classics recordings are available on the Maestro Classics website, and from Amazon, iTunes, and other major distributions and retailers, including the LA Philharmonic store at Walt Disney Concert Hall, the Metropolitan Opera store at Lincoln Center, the Carnegie Hall store, and the Boston Symphony Orchestra store at Tanglewood.

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