The nutcracker suite, op. 71a

Before the full ballet of The Nutcracker premiered in December 1892, Tchaikovsky drew eight numbers from the score into a concert suite, first performed earlier that year and an immediate success in its own right. This piano reduction lets a single pianist play through its most famous scenes. The Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy introduced Russian audiences to the celesta, a new instrument Tchaikovsky had discovered in Paris and kept secret from rivals until the premiere, and the suite as a whole remains one of the most performed pieces of orchestral music ever written.