Posts tagged as "paris-conservatoire-orchestra"

Tchaikovsky: Sleeping Beauty; Symphony No. 4

January 14, 2019

The Tchaikovsky ballet score recordings by the Ukrainian-born conductor, Anatole Fistoulari, are prized ‘as being among the finest ever made’ (Gramophone). As a companion issue to the abridged ‘Swan Lake’ and extended excerpts from ‘The Nutcracker’ on Eloquence (482 5225), this newly remastered set offers another pair of complete Decca albums both appearing for the […]

Tchaikovsky: Swan Lake; The Nutcracker

October 29, 2018

According to legend, Anatole Fistoulari (1907–1995), conducted an orchestra for the first time at the age of seven. Having moved to France in his twenties, he escaped to England after the fall of France in 1939 and based the rest of his career in the UK as a ballet specialist who became something of a […]

Debussy, Dukas: Orchestral works

June 13, 2018

‘La  Mer’  was a signature work for Ernst Ansermet. He made four recordings of Debussy’s trilogy of symphonic sketches through the course of his career. The first and second of them, from 1947 and 1951, have been made available in new remasterings by Eloquence (482 5007 and 480 0127 respectively). Now they are joined by […]

Ansermet in Russia

June 13, 2018

Russian music was always a fundamental part of Ansermet’s vast repertoire. Of course, he spent seven years as conductor with the famous Ballets Russes during a particularly glorious period for the company. Formed in 1907 by Serge Diaghilev, the Ballets Russes brought a breath of fresh air to artistic creativity at the beginning of the […]

The Complete Studio Recordings

November 27, 2017

‘In every way the most transcendentally gifted young piano student I have heard in the last 25 years’ was Percy Grainger’s pronouncement of the young Eileen Joyce (1908–1991) when he first heard her play in 1926. From the goldfields in Western Australia whose capital city is the most remote in the world, Joyce defied incongruous and […]

Tchaikovsky: Sleeping Beauty; Stravinsky: L’Oiseau de Feu – Suite

June 22, 2016

Pierre Monteux  made his first LSO recording in 1957 – a generous selection of pieces drawn from Tchaikovsky’s ‘Sleeping Beauty’. Originally released on RCA, the recording repatriated to Decca in 1973. Over 50 minutes of selections from the ballet (as much as would comfortably and generously fit on two LP sides in the 1950s) in […]

Sibelius: Symphonies Nos. 2 & 4, Rachmaninov: Isle of the Dead

May 25, 2016

While it remains a pity that Ansermet didn’t venture further into the bleaker landscapes of Sibelius, less may well be more, and these epic recordings of the Second and Fourth symphonies, together with a raw reading of Tapiola are collected together on CD for the first time. The mood of desolation continues with the Paris […]

Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherazade; Le Coq d’Or

May 25, 2016

While Ansermet’s stereo Suisse Romande recording of ‘Scheherazade’ is well-known and has been frequently reissued, his early (1954) Paris Conservatoire Orchestra recording of this piece is a relative rarity and here receives its first CD outing on Decca. It has, perhaps, that extra bit of fantasy over his later recording of the work and was […]

Ravel: L’Enfant et les sortilegès; Shéhérazade; Deux melodies hebraiques; Trois poèmes de Stephane Mallarme; La Valse; Bolero

May 25, 2016

Fascinated by children, Ravel composed two one-act operas, ‘L’enfant et les sortileges’ and ‘L’Heure espagnole’. These priceless Ansermet recordings now return to the catalogue, coupled with the rare and much-requested disc of Ravel vocal works with Danco and Ansermet. As a coupling we have the Paris Conservatoire recordings of Bolero (the stereo version making its […]

Tchaikovsky: Symphonies Nos. 2 & 5; Russian Orchestral Works

May 10, 2016

Solti’s 1956 recordings of the Tchaikovsky Second and Fifth symphonies included on this collection are his only recordings of them. He never recorded a complete cycle, although, in the 1970s he recorded the Fifth and Sixth with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Both symphonies were recorded with the Paris Conservatoire Orchestra. The story behind his recording […]

Prokofiev: Symphonies Nos. 1, 5 & 6

April 22, 2016

This and the other two 2CD sets – 4800830 and 4800837 – represent all of Ansermet’s Prokofiev recordings for Decca (with the exception of a mono recording of the March and Scherzo from The Love for Three Oranges). Both the Paris Conservatoire and the Suisse Romande versions of the ‘Classical’ Symphony are included.