Der Nussknacker

Der Nussknacker is a ballet score by Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (Пётр Ильич Чайковский), first performed in 1892. The work employs late-Romantic orchestration with dance forms and suite-like sections drawn from 19th-century Russian ballet tradition, and it is one of Tchaikovsky's major stage works from the later period of his career.