Anatole Fistoulari Conducts Russian Concert Favorites = Works of GLINKA, TCHAIKOVSKY, BORODIN, GLAZUNOV, PROKOFIEV, RIMSKY-KORSAKOV – Guild

by | Jun 21, 2012 | Classical Reissue Reviews

Anatole Fistoulari – Russian Concert Favorites = RIMSKY-KORSAKOV: Procession of the Nobles from “Mlada”; GLINKA: Valse-Fantasie; TCHAIKOVSKY: Marche Miniature from Suite No. 1 in D Major, Op. 43; Waltz from Swan Lake; BORODIN (arr. N. Tcherepnin): Notturno from String Quartet No. 2 in D Major; GLAZUNOV: Concert Waltz No. 1 in D Major, Op. 47; Stenka Razin, Op. 13; PROKOFIEV: 3 Excerpts from Lt. Kije Suite, Op. 60 – Royal Philharmonic Orch./ Philharmonia Orch./ Anatole Fistoulari – Guild GHCD 2391, 68:45 [Distr. by Albany] ****:
I have had occasion to discuss Russian-born (and subsequent British national) conductor Anatole Fistoulari (1907-1995) prior, in regard to issues from the Opus Kura label. Born in Kiev to an established conductor, Anatole revealed his gifts early, leading a performance of Tchaikovsky’s Pathetique Symphony at the age of seven! After the Russian Revolution of 1917, Fistoulari found himself an émigré in Paris, consorting with the likes of Enesco, Koussevitzky, Prokofiev, and Chaliapin. He led the Ballets Russe in Paris, and so evolved a formidable array of works in that genre. During WW II, Fistoulari left France and fled to England, where in 1942 he married Anna Mahler, the composer’s only surviving daughter. In 1943 Fistoulari won an appointment as principal of the London Philharmonic Orchestra. Curiously, after WW II Fistoulari’s recording career thrived despite his never again being offered a permanent post with a major orchestra.
What impresses most throughout this happy assemblage is the sterling intensity of the two orchestral ensembles, Beecham’s Royal Philharmonic (10 November 1958) in the Rimsky-Korsakov, Glinka, and Tchaikovsky (Marche Miniature) selections, and the remainder of the program with the splendid Philharmonia Orchestra (1 March 1956; 27 July 1956; and 14 March 1957). Of particular sonic quality, given its orchestration, comes the Nikolai Tcherepnin arrangement of the Borodin Notturno, otherwise played strictly as an expanded string lollipop. Here, woodwinds and horns fill out a voluptuous invocation of Kismet. The grand pieces, Rimsky-Korsakov’s pageant scene from Mlada and the grand Waltz from Swan Lake, prove to be excellent test-samples for anyone’s sound reproduction equipment. The Glazunov D Major Waltz achieves that lovely balance of melodic beauty and orchestral patina that adds a luster surpassing the Ansermet inscription with the Suisse Romande Orchestra.  The 1839 Glinka Valse-Fantasie already had a lively competitor in Nicolai Malko, but we can welcome another strong and colorful alternative.
Oddly, Fistoulari presents us only three of the five movements that constitute Prokofiev’s 1934 Lt. Kije Suite: Kije’s Wedding, Troika, and the Burial of Kije. Pungent and ironically inflated, the excerpts capture our attention, especially for the interior woodwind interplay that virtually defined the Philharmonia’s classic virtuosity. Generally, Fistoulari’s readings fall under the most literal of guises, to the point that one acerbic critic once labeled him “the non-conductor.” But the natural sympathy and scope he exerts in these readings belie his negative press for lack of personality. The Troika section of Lt. Kije alone warrants respect for its startling virtuosity and rhythmic precision. And Fistoulari’s rhythmic sense had garnered recognition from the first, having been cited as a factor in a critic’s appraisal from the teenaged boy’s St. Petersburg days. The final selection, Glazunov’s extended study on “The Volga Boat Song,” his 1885 Stenka Razin, in B Minor, imitates much of the Tchaikovsky formulas for symphonic poems, and it allows Fistoulari and Philharmonia considerable scope for their sonic powers. By the late pages, an heroic apotheosis has illumined the atmosphere, by sheer dint of the Philharmonia strings’ intensity, as supported by clarion winds and brass. If this constitutes “non-conducting,” then pour it on!
—Gary Lemco

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