Carnival Overture by Dvorak by The New York Philharmonic

Tonight at 7:00 on The Evening Concert it’s the New York Philharmonic This Week with Dvorak’s “Carnival Overture”, and

Tchaikovsky’s “Polonaise from Eugene Onegin” and “Selections from ‘The Nutcracker’”. Alan Gilbert conducts. Also on the program, Glenn Dicterow plays Bartok’s “Violin Concerto”.

Eugene Onegin is a well-known example of lyric opera, to which Tchaikovsky added music of a dramatic nature. The story concerns a selfish hero who lives to regret his blasé rejection of a young woman's love and his careless incitement of a fatal duel with his best friend. The opera was first performed in Moscow in 1879. The work's title refers to the protagonist. (per wikipedia)

Tchaikovsky made a selection of eight of the numbers from the ballet ‘The Nutcracker’ before the ballet's December 1892 première, forming The Nutcracker Suite, Op. 71a, intended for concert performance. The suite was first performed, under the composer's direction, on 19 March 1892 at an assembly of the St. Petersburg branch of the Musical Society. The suite became instantly popular (according to Men of Music "every number had to be repeated"), but the complete ballet did not begin to achieve its great popularity until after the George Balanchine staging became a hit in New York City.[21] The suite became very popular on the concert stage, and was featured in Disney's Fantasia. The Nutcracker Suite should not be mistaken for the complete ballet. The outline below represents the selection and sequence of the Nutcracker Suite culled by the composer.
I. Miniature Overture
II. Danses caractéristiques
a. Marche
b. Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy [ending altered from ballet-version]
c. Russian Dance (Trepak)
d. Arabian Dance
e. Chinese Dance

(per wikipedia)