Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. Entrée Du Prince
2. Entrée De Giselle
3. Retour De La Vendange
4. La Chasse, First Part
5. Pas De Deux And La Chasse, Second Part
6. Scène D'Hilarion
7. Galop
8. Final
9. La Halte Des Chasseurs
10. Apparition Et Scène De Myrtha
11. Apparition De Giselle
12. Entrée Des Paysans Entrée D'Albert Et Wilfred

Disc 2:

1. Entrée D'Hilarion
2. Grand Pas De Deux
3. Arranged by Manuel Rosenthal
4. Final

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #194711 in Music
• Released on: 1996-05-14
• Number of discs: 2

Amazon.com
Giselle is the first of the great "classical" ballets, which is a bit confusing because all of the classical ballets date from the romantic period. What "classical" means in this context is a full-length theater piece in several acts that tells a coherent story. There were only two countries where this sort of entertainment became popular--France and Russia, and the great composers of classical ballet were, accordingly, Tchaikovsky, Glazunov, Prokofiev, Adam, and Delibes. Of course, there were many others, but they don't get played that often, for good reason. Giselle is a typical "fairy tale" ballet full of good tunes and nice, strong dance rhythms. It's not as great as Delibes or Tchaikovsky, but taken on its own terms, it's a good listen. This performance makes the music shine. --David Hurwitz

Customer Reviews

The most satisfying Giselle on disk
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 Manual 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.

An artistic milestone
Antal Dorati figure has been frequently associated with Hungarian and Russian composers, but he possessed a superb good tatse at the time to conduct notable pieces of the ballet repertoire. This Giselle may be well considered as a notable example about what I am talking about.

Lyricism, grace, and absolute sense of serene charm make of this recording an absolute must for all those who love this ballet.

Totally recommended.

Credits?
The Amazon.com product listing states that Fistoulari conducts Adam's Giselle and that Dorati conducts the other titles. Yet most of the reviews congratulate Dorati for the Giselle.

Well, which is it? If these auditors are unable to read a jewel case insert, it bodes ill for their reviews. Who conducts what?