The Nutcracker Suite – Arranged for Two Pianos, Four Hands

Nicholas Economou Piano Arrangements

Click on the mp3 player to play

Title	mp3 Audio
Overture
March
Dance Of The Sugar Plum Fairy
Russian Dance
Arabian Dance
Chinese Dance
Dance Of The Reed Flutes
Waltz Of The Flowers

I have studied Nicolas Economou’s 2-Pianos, 4-hands arrangement of the Nutcracker Suite since I began my long-term association with the Suite, sometime before 2003. While putting away one of my copies of his arrangement today, I was reviewing information about him in Wikipedia and was shocked to find that the same day I wrote this post (December 29, 2013) was the 20th anniversary of Nicolas Economou’s untimely and accidental death on December 29, 1993.

The Economou arrangement of the Nutcracker Suite is notable because of its coverage of all important orchestral parts, while maintaining a reasonable degree of pianistic playability. Although these arrangements are moderately difficult, the reward for studying and learning them has definitely been worth the effort to me.

I recorded the (this) piano version of the Overture in 2013, ten years after the other piano recordings. Currently, the Overture is played using different instruments (Ivory “German” Grand(s)) than the rest of these recordings (Kurzweil 2500). Eventually, I will re-record all of these pieces using the same instruments and acoustic space. However, because of my auspicious discovery that today was the anniversary of the arranger’s death, I rushed my presentation and re-publication of these versions of the Nutcracker Suite. I hope that you enjoy my performances of Nicolas Economou’s 2-pianos, 4-hands arrangement.