Adam - Giselle (complete ballet) ~ Offenbach - Gaîté Parisienne ~ Strauss Graduation Ball / Fistoulari, Dorati

Adolphe Adam (Composer), Antal Dorati (Artist), Jacques Offenbach (Composer), Anatole Fistoulari (Conductor), Antal Dorati (Conductor), London Symphony Orchestra (Orchestra, Composer), Minnesota Orchestra (Orchestra), Johann Strauss II (Artist) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Orchestra: London Symphony Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra
• Conductor: Anatole Fistoulari, Antal Dorati
• Composer: Adolphe Adam, Jacques Offenbach, London Symphony Orchestra
• Audio CD (May 14, 1996)
• SPARS Code: ADD
• Number of Discs: 2
• Label: Philips
• ASIN: B0000057N1
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #278,227 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

Disc: 1

1. Giselle: Act I - Introduction

2. Giselle: No. 1

3. Giselle: Entree du Prince

4. Giselle: Entree de Giselle

5. Giselle: Retour de la Vendage

6. Giselle: La Chasse, First Part

7. Giselle: Pas de Deux and La Chasse, Second Part

8. Giselle: Scene d'Hilarion -- Marche des Vendanges

9. Giselle: Galop

10. Giselle: Final

See all 17 tracks on this disc

Disc: 2

1. Giselle: Act II (cont.) -- Entree d'Hilarion

2. Giselle: Grand Pas de Deux

3. Giselle: Final

4. Giselle: Final (cont.)

5. Giselle: Final (cont.)

6. Giselle: Final (concl.)

7. Giselle: Graduation Ball

8. Giselle: Gaite Parisienne

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great for Dancers, April 17, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Adam - Giselle (complete ballet) ~ Offenbach - Gaîté Parisienne ~ Strauss Graduation Ball / Fistoulari, Dorati (Audio CD)

If you are a dance teacher looking for a good recording of the music from giselle I would highly recommend this version. It is played at tempo's which are close to those used in live ballets. The sound does not rise and fall to ridiculous levels like in some recordings. Overall I was am very pleased with this recording.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The most satisfying Giselle on disk, April 5, 2007

By 

Classic Music Lover (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Adam - Giselle (complete ballet) ~ Offenbach - Gaîté Parisienne ~ Strauss Graduation Ball / Fistoulari, Dorati (Audio CD)

Let's start by getting a few facts straight on the other reviews. Anatole Fistoulari and the LSO perform the Giselle on this CD, while Antal Dorati and his Minneapolis forces are the ones reponsible for the Graduation Ball and Gaite Parisienne. Starting with Giselle, Fistoulari turns in the most satisfying account of this work to be found on CD today. It's true that other "complete" recordings include about 20 to 25 minutes of additional music, but one wonders how much of this material was originally intended for this ballet -- or actually composed by Adam at all? There's a bit of mystery surrounding the Paris Opera Ballet orchestral parts, as lots of changes and modifications were made over the years. When Fistoulari made this recording back around 1960, he used the complete score then in use in Paris. When I compare it to others, I find that the additional music in the other recordings is pretty boring stuff compared to the inventiveness and charm of the rest of the music. Moreover, the orchestration is much more effective here -- particularly in the percussion department and the use of brass. Another very important difference is the ending of the ballet, which has been altered in more recent renditions to include a soft fadeout of music whereas the original has an orchestral flourish that corresponds with the final curtain drop; the new approach is HUGELY unsatisfying. Veteran ballet conductor that he was, Fistoulari has a natural flair for this music and is more successful than so many other conductors like Zhuraitis, Mogrelia and Michael Tilson Thomas. Bonynge on Decca gives Fistoulari a good run for his money, and that version would be the one to buy if you really want to hear all of the (pretty forgettable) extra music that's attributed to this ballet score. The London Symphony is in top form for Fistoulari, and Mercury's original three-channel stereo recording has ultra-realistic orchestral depth and bloom like you wouldn't believe.

Another veteran conductor from the ballet pits, Antal Dorati directs a sinewy, frenetic Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra in the Gaite Parisienne and the Graduation Ball numbers. For once, a full symphony orchestra actually sounds like a pit band -- and you really do feel like you're experiencing an actual ballet performance. Dorati himself arranged the score for Graduation Ball for the Ballet Russes back in the late 1930s. Here as well, there are two versions of the score ... and the one done here is the better of the two (Dorati made an earlier recording with the Dallas Symphony, and later recorded the alternate version, as did Bonynge and several others ... I find this reading more exciting than these alternatives). The Gaite Parisienne score is cut by about 15 minutes ... and Arthur Fiedler and Eugene Ormandy have done the complete score better anyway. You can also hear this music performed by the arranger Manuel Rosenthal -- but by all means avoid his last recording (of three) which he made in his 90s for Naxos, released a year or two before his death ... that one is just WAY too slow.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fistoulari and Dorati in top form, March 14, 2000

By 

Mark McCue (Denver, CO USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Adam - Giselle (complete ballet) ~ Offenbach - Gaîté Parisienne ~ Strauss Graduation Ball / Fistoulari, Dorati (Audio CD)

"~Fistoulari and Dorati were certainly among the elite of ballet maestri (you know, Irving, Kurtz, Joseph Levine, Markevitch, Desormiere, that crowd). Here they are with two of their best efforts fortuitously coupled."~ some repeats here and there which is what he probably did night after night in the pit. He skips the gallop in/gallop out which is a good thing, because in French ballet those snippets are never of the highest inspiration anyway. The London Symphony plays beautifully for him, showing the excellent work that Dorati had done with it."~ Philharmonic, but the Minneapolis Symphony sounds a lot more idiomatic as a ballet orchestra. When you compare the two, the VPO sounds lumpy and bored by comparison. The MSO's clear, concise execution would be a blessing to dancers who need definite, dependable rhythm, not rubati, thank you. What a good outfit it was under Dorati! and there's no higher compliment to composers and performers.