Kick off your holiday season with a free download of selections from Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker, op.71,  available courtesy of Alexander Street Press. You can grab the recording at this link: http://alexanderstreet.com/support-center/classical-music-library-free-download-week. Enjoy, and then impress, astound, and mystify your friends by name-dropping the Russian title, “Shchelkunchik”! The performance is by the Orchestre d’Etat du Palatinat Rhénan, and their recording of Tchaikovsky’s Symphony no. 5 is also available at that link.