Leonard Bernstein was an American conductor, composer, pianist, music educator, author, and humanitarian. Considered to be one of the most important conductors of his time, he was the first American-born conductor to receive international acclaim. Bernstein's honors and accolades include seven Emmy Awards, two Tony Awards, and 16 Grammy Awards (including the Lifetime Achievement Award) as well as an Academy Award nomination. He received the Kennedy Center Honor in 1981. Here he conducts the New York Philharmonic, an American symphony orchestra based in New York City. Known officially as the Philharmonic-Symphony Society of New York, Inc., it is one of the leading American orchestras popularly called the "Big Five." The Philharmonic's home is David Geffen Hall, at New York's Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts.  Founded in 1842, the orchestra is one of the oldest musical institutions in the United States and the oldest of the "Big Five" orchestras. Side A of this album is Peter and the Wolf, Op. 67, a "symphonic tale for children," a programmatic musical composition written by Sergei Prokofiev in 1936. The narrator tells a Russian folk tale, which the orchestra illustrates by using different instruments to play a "theme" that represents each character in the story. Here Bernstein is the narrator. Side B is The Nutcracker, Op. 71, an 1892 two-act classical ballet by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. It is set on Christmas Eve at the foot of a Christmas tree in a child's imagination featuring a Nutracker doll. The plot is an adaptation of Alexandre Dumas's 1844 short story The Nutcracker, itself a retelling of E.T.A. Hoffmann's 1816 short story The Nutcracker and the Mouse King. The ballet's first choreographer was Marius Petipa, with whom Tchaikovsky had worked three years earlier on The Sleeping Beauty, assisted by Lev Ivanov. This is a 1973 reissue of a 1960 recording. The record and its sleeve are in Very Good Plus condition, close to Near Mint.

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