Sugar Plum on the Run is a musical story, with variations based on the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy from Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker. It’s a newly released recording from TV and film composer Lior Rosner, and features narration by actor Jeremy Irons.
There’s more information about the recording at Lior Rosner’s website.
“For the longest time I was obsessed with finding a space for myself within the Christmas repertoire,” Rosner says. “Because it’s like, every year December comes and the same music comes back. And I thought it would be nice to be a part of this tradition.” And he considered different possibilities: “I was originally thought about doing something like a Christmas celesta concerto, or something. I realized that it would have to be a very small orchestra to do a celeste concerto. And I thought also, like, nobody’s going to learn a whole concerto for one performance.” So instead, he decided to write a set of variations on the theme in which the celesta is the star, the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy. “I always felt when I was either going to see the ballet or I was listening, I always thought it’d be interesting to see what would he do if he had to do a few more numbers with this theme?” Once the variations were underway, he thought a narrative to tell of the adventures of ‘Plum’ might work, and with his friend James Lorick, wrote a story, which ultimately Jeremy Irons would record. “I think what I learned is, if you don’t ask, you don’t get. I approached Jeremy Irons, and he agreed to do it. We agreed to give some of the proceeds to a charity of his choice.” The recording includes both the theme and variations and the narrated story, which tells of getting lost in the woods, dancing with dwarves, sailing stormy seas, and returning safely to home sweet home.
