By the time that Clara and Hans Peter arrive in the Kingdom of Sweets, Marius Petipa has gone into overdrive describing its vistas and the Sugar Plum Fairy's retenue. The great candied Princess is announced by the celesta, her signature instrument. Tchaikovsky found this new type of keyboard glockenspiel when he was in Paris in 1891 and employed the machine as soon as he could. It was the perfect sound to describe sublime artifice (coupled with a flutter-tongue technique on the flutes and piccolo). Although Ernest Chausson had used the celesta in his 1888 composition
La tempête, Tchaikovsky was the first to bring it to Russia. As Clara and Hans Peter arrive, the music begins to reverse its modulations. Having moved from C major into E major (via E minor) at the end of the first act, Tchaikovsky shifts back into C major during this passage. The Sugar Plum Fairy and Prince approach and a solemn descending motif appears on the bassoons, trombones and lower strings. A swift 6/8 dance comes next, teetering on the edge of E minor and then into A minor. This introduces Hans Peter's recollections of what occurred in act one. The battle music returns in ever more vicious tones, as he mimes the events to the Sugar Plum Fairy. But after a glorious surging run in the strings, a lyrical theme tells of Clara's triumph, shifting through A flat major to E flat major (all the time coloured by flattened subdominant harmonies). In the original scenario, the Sugar Plum Fairy brings out a table of preserves for the courageous pair. Tchaikovsky seems to move away from E flat, only to confirm the tonality as we prepare for the various national divertissements.
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Iohna Loots as Clara and Ricardo Cervera as the Nephew
in The Royal Ballet's production of
The NutcrackerPhotograph © ROH/Johan Persson
