MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2024
60,000 reviews
... and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here Acte Prealable Polish CDs
 

Presto Music CD retailer
 
Founder: Len Mullenger                                    Editor in Chief:John Quinn             


Some items
to consider

new MWI
Current reviews

old MWI
pre-2023 reviews

paid for
advertisements

Acte Prealable Polish recordings

Forgotten Recordings
Forgotten Recordings
All Forgotten Records Reviews

TROUBADISC
Troubadisc Weinberg- TROCD01450

All Troubadisc reviews


FOGHORN Classics

Alexandra-Quartet
Brahms String Quartets

All Foghorn Reviews


All HDTT reviews


Songs to Harp from
the Old and New World


all Nimbus reviews



all tudor reviews


Follow us on Twitter


Editorial Board
MusicWeb International
Founding Editor
   
Rob Barnett
Editor in Chief
John Quinn
Contributing Editor
Ralph Moore
Webmaster
   David Barker
Postmaster
Jonathan Woolf
MusicWeb Founder
   Len Mullenger

REVIEW


Advertising on
Musicweb


Donate and keep us afloat

 

New Releases

Naxos Classical
All Naxos reviews

Chandos recordings
All Chandos reviews

Hyperion recordings
All Hyperion reviews

Foghorn recordings
All Foghorn reviews

Troubadisc recordings
All Troubadisc reviews



all Bridge reviews


all cpo reviews

Divine Art recordings
Click to see New Releases
Get 10% off using code musicweb10
All Divine Art reviews


All Eloquence reviews

Lyrita recordings
All Lyrita Reviews

 

Wyastone New Releases
Obtain 10% discount

Subscribe to our free weekly review listing

 

 

 

alternatively
CD: MDT AmazonUK AmazonUS

The World of Ballet
Giuseppe VERDI (1813-1901)
Aida Dance of the Moorish Slaves and March [8:16]
Modest MUSSORGSKY (1839-1881)
Khovantschina Dance of the Persian Slaves [6:17]
Camille SAINT-SAËNS (1835-1921)
Samson et Dalila Bacchanale [6:45]
Gioachino ROSSINI (1792-1868)
Guillaume Tell Passo a sei – Soldiers’ Dance [11:34]
Johann STRAUSS II (1825-1899)
Graduation Ball (arr. Antal Dorati) [37:02]
Carl Maria von WEBER (1786-1826)
Invitation to the Dance Op 65 (orch. Berlioz) [9:13]
Léon MINKUS (1826-1917)
Don Quixote Pas de deux [8:05]
Alexandre Charles LECOCQ (1832-1918)
Mam’zelle Angot (arr. Gordon Jacob) [24:01]
Sir William WALTON (1902-1983)
Façade Suites [21:31]
Paris Conservatoire Orchestra; New Symphony Orchestra; Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden
Anatole Fistoulari (conductor)
rec. London and Paris, 1953-58
DECCA ELOQUENCE 480 2391 [70:26 + 63:13]

Experience Classicsonline



Anatole Fistoulari (1907-1995) was busy in the recording studios mainly in the 1950s and 1960s, largely in ballet music. Presumably he was chosen for this due to his work before the war with the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo. Notably he recorded Swan Lake three times. Most of the works on these discs are a mixture of ballets drawn from operas and arrangements for ballet of music not originally intended for that purpose. The earliest recordings are those of Graduation Ball and the music by Minkus and Weber, all of which date from 1953. The latest are the operatic items recorded in Paris in 1958. Obviously no one would expect the recording quality to be up to modern standards but unless this is your main interest I cannot imagine that the actual sound as re-mastered on these discs will deter anyone who is interested in this music and its performance.

It is a pity that the collection starts with the Aida extracts. The Grand March is a marvellous piece in context. On its own and without the essential vocal contributions it can seem somewhat colourless. Things improve greatly with the next three items, all operatic. Here there is real colour, rhythmic dash and atmosphere. The Guillaume Tell extract is especially effective with speeds that are sometimes slower than usual, to the music’s great advantage.

Graduation Ball and Mam’zelle Angot are ballets where existing music is arranged to fit the story and the choreographer’s intentions. The former uses mainly lesser-known music by Johann Strauss II along with a couple of familiar extracts including the Perpetuum Mobile. Ingenious as Dorati’s rescoring is, I found myself often wishing I was listening to the original versions. This kind of arrangement can work either when the original music is left largely untouched or when the arrangement is particularly colourful or attractive in itself. I am not convinced that either of these is the case here. For the most part Mam’zelle Angot is based on music from the operetta La Fille de Madame Angot which I must admit to never having heard. Although it does tend, at least in Gordon Jacob’s arrangement, to sound somewhat generic in the manner of French operetta of that period it is certainly agreeable. I have to admit nonetheless that I failed to remember much of it on a second hearing.

Façade is in every way of greater musical interest than these two ballets. It is the composer’s own arrangement of his very individual chamber masterpiece. Although these orchestrations are often heard in the form of two Suites they are played here in the order used in the ballet, which works very well for continuous listening. The composer recorded them on 78s which I played incessantly as a teenager, and it may be that my feeling that there is some lack of character in the playing here is simply due to over-familiarity with those versions rather than to any defects in conducting or playing.

Overall I enjoyed these discs but it would be hard to describe them as a compelling purchase unless you especially want sufficient of the collection as a whole. As usual Eloquence put other companies in the shade when it comes to presentation, with an excellent essay by Raymond Tuttle on the music and on these recordings.

John Sheppard

 

 

 

 

 


EXPLORE MUSICWEB INTERNATIONAL

Making a Donation to MusicWeb

Writing CD reviews for MWI

About MWI
Who we are, where we have come from and how we do it.

Site Map

How to find a review

How to find articles on MusicWeb
Listed in date order

Review Indexes
   By Label
      Select a label and all reviews are listed in Catalogue order
   By Masterwork
            Links from composer names (eg Sibelius) are to resource pages with links to the review indexes for the individual works as well as other resources.

Themed Review pages

Jazz reviews

 

Discographies
   Composer
      Composer surveys
   National
      Unique to MusicWeb -
a comprehensive listing of all LP and CD recordings of given works
.
Prepared by Michael Herman

The Collector’s Guide to Gramophone Company Record Labels 1898 - 1925
Howard Friedman

Book Reviews

Complete Books
We have a number of out of print complete books on-line

Interviews
With Composers, Conductors, Singers, Instumentalists and others
Includes those on the Seen and Heard site

Nostalgia

Nostalgia CD reviews

Records Of The Year
Each reviewer is given the opportunity to select the best of the releases

Monthly Best Buys
Recordings of the Month and Bargains of the Month

Comment
Arthur Butterworth Writes

An occasional column

Phil Scowcroft's Garlands
British Light Music articles

Classical blogs
A listing of Classical Music Blogs external to MusicWeb International

Reviewers Logs
What they have been listening to for pleasure

Announcements

 

Community
Bulletin Board

Give your opinions or seek answers

Reviewers
Past and present

Helpers invited!

Resources
How Did I Miss That?

Currently suspended but there are a lot there with sound clips


Composer Resources

British Composers

British Light Music Composers

Other composers

Film Music (Archive)
Film Music on the Web (Closed in December 2006)

Programme Notes
For concert organizers

External sites
British Music Society
The BBC Proms
Orchestra Sites
Recording Companies & Retailers
Online Music
Agents & Marketing
Publishers
Other links
Newsgroups
Web News sites etc

PotPourri
A pot-pourri of articles

MW Listening Room
MW Office

Advice to Windows Vista users  
Questionnaire    
Site History  
What they say about us
What we say about us!
Where to get help on the Internet
CD orders By Special Request
Graphics archive
Currency Converter
Dictionary
Magazines
Newsfeed  
Web Ring
Translation Service

Rules for potential reviewers :-)
Do Not Go Here!
April Fools






Untitled Document


Reviews from previous months
Join the mailing list and receive a hyperlinked weekly update on the discs reviewed. details
We welcome feedback on our reviews. Please use the Bulletin Board
Please paste in the first line of your comments the URL of the review to which you refer.