Well, it's the beginning of another exciting and fun-filled week (M-F) of free classical music pieces, courtesy of YourClassical!
Being slow-witted as I am, it didn't occur to me that the free classical giveaways that we might be offered in the next two or three weeks could conceivably include some traditional Holiday (Christmas) music. That is, until I saw today's
freebie from Your Classical.
It is a piece from
The Nutcracker:
Waltz of the Snowflakes. Many of you recognize immediately that the album, and therefore this piece from it, are composed by Peter Tchaikovsky.
This rendition runs 7 minutes and 23 seconds. It is performed by the Gurzenich Orchestra of Cologne, with Dmitri Kitayenko conducting.
It is produced by a company called Oehms Classics. Should you wish to find out more about the album, there is a dedicated webpage for it located
here.
That webpage comes courtesy of our friends at Naxos.
Stream the piece,
free, if you so desire from
this webpage. From
the same webpage, you may also download the MP3 piece by clicking on the "Direct MP3 download link" link. And you also will find a couple of options of places where you might purchase the album, should you so desire (the Oehms Classics album consists of 2 CD's).
Of course, with my very important responsibility of posting these pieces from YourClassical, it is also incumbent upon me to have to download and listen to the pieces myself. To make sure that they sound alright and everything, you know.
This piece is a fine-sounding one but, I would have to say, not one of the more familiar pieces from
The Nutcracker. However, I would not be surprised if we do not get more opportunities, from one source or another, to download other pieces of
The Nutcracker before St. Nick arrives here from the North Pole in a few weeks. Maybe one or more of them will be pieces more recognizable and beloved than today's.