TOD
I feel like I was born knowing the phrase "Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops", but my own real introduction to him was the RCA Living Stereo recording of Gershwin's Concerto in F with the Pops and Earl Wild. That came to me a couple of years after I'd been struck by the Gershwin triple lightning bolt of Rhapsody in Blue, Porgy and Bess, and then the Concerto in F via the Mercury recording. Learning of the Fiedler recording was probably thanks to my being in the RCA Record Club. A HUGE bonus on that album was the inclusion, and introduction to me, of the Cuban Overture and the "I Got Rhythm" Variations. What amazing pieces, and playing. I must have played that record until my family was ready to put out a contract on me.
I didn't accumulate other Fiedler recordings until the aforementioned record-hunting days, when by then I knew to watch for other RCA Living Stereo recordings, Fiedler's included. I have a few of those LPs, but there are many more I probably haven't even heard to this day. One that I know I have is the Leroy Anderson album. But they're all amazing recordings and performances. That Nutcracker, and his Dvorak New World Symphony recording, a much later discovery, were equally amazing finds.