A tall imposing figure, so tall, in fact, that he often dispensed with a podium, Efrem Kurtz was a distinguished Russian conductor, who had studied with Glazunov and Tcherepnin and was a pupil of Arthur Nikisch. Kurtz had a broad symphonic and operatic repertory and conducted the premieres of works by Copland, Barber, Walton, Hindemith, Stravinsky, Shostakovich and Khachaturian. But he was most highly regarded for his interpretations of Russian music.

Kurtz was a familiar name to the record collector of the 1950s and embarked upon a series of Tchaikovsky ballet recordings with the Philharmonia Orchestra for EMI in 1958. HIQ has already released Swan Lake (HIQLP049) and the release The Sleeping Beauty is in preparation. Of this Nutcracker highlights GRAMOPHONE wrote: “This is probably as good a selection as could reasonably be expected.”

Recorded March 1958, Kingsway Hall, London. Recording Producer: Peter Andry. Balance Engineer: Neville Boyling

Cut at Abbey Road Studios from the original stereo analogue master tapes with the Neumann VMS82 lathe fed an analogue pre-cut signal from a specially adapted Studer A80 tape deck with additional ‘advance’ playback head, making the cut a totally analogue process.

In the original review in The Gramophone of November 1958, R.F. remarked: “The orchestral quality is superb, and the dynamic contrasts tremendous. If you can hear the opening pizzicato notes of the Sugar-Plum Fairy, the end of the Valse des Fleurs will have your neighbours banging on the wall in desperation…”