Although itΓÇÖs now a staple of the holiday season, ΓÇ£The NutcrackerΓÇ¥ ballet was virtually unknown in the United States until the 1950s. Excerpts had been performed earlier but the first complete performance in the United States was not given in 1944, by the San Francisco Ballet and choreographed by William Christiansen. Ten years later, George Balanchine choreographed a complete ΓÇ£NutcrackerΓÇ¥ for his New York City Ballet, and from this production, the balletΓÇÖs popular grew and most subsequent US productions sprang. 

In 1959, the New York City Ballet Orchestra, under the direction of Robert Irving, recorded the complete score for Kapp Records. It is a historic recording in many ways, especially for preserving the tempos of the music as Balanchine choreographed it. This is not a ΓÇ£NutcrackerΓÇ¥ for the concert hall. This is a ΓÇ£NutcrackerΓÇ¥ to be danced and the pace is fair livelier than in most other recordings, so much so that, in a few instances, itΓÇÖs difficult to imagine dancers keeping up with it. 

Kapp Records folded at least 40 years ago and I suspect this two LP set went out of print many years before that. (In addition to the set, Kapp also released an LP of two suites from the recording.) But here it is, from a pristine 4-track tape produced for Kapp sometime in the 1960s in full stereo.