Saturday, December 11, 2004

[12/12/2010] Yes, it's our 3rd Annual "Very Tchaikovsky Christmas" (continued)

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The beginning and end of the 1959 Disney film version of Sleeping Beauty


TCHAIKOVSKY: Swan Lake, Op. 20

Swan Lake, Op. 20: excerpts

For the Kurtz recording i've maintained the groupings created by the banding on the LP.

Introduction
No. 2, Act I, Waltz
No. 4, Act I, Pas de trois, Nos. 1-6



No. 5, Act I, Pas de deux, Nos. 1-2


No. 5, Act I, Pas de deux, Nos. 3-4
No. 10, Act II, Scène
No. 13, Act II, Dance of the Swans, Nos. 1, 2, and 4



No. 13, Act II, Dance of the Swans, No. 5
No. 20, Act III, Hungarian Dance (Czárdás)
Supplement, Russian Dance


Yehudi Menuhin, violin; Philharmonia Orchestra, Efrem Kurtz, cond. EMI, recorded c1957


Swan Lake, Op. 20: Acts II-III

Act II


Act III

NBC Symphony Orchestra members, Leopold Stokowski, cond. RCA, recorded Oct. 1954-Feb. 1955


TCHAIKOVSKY: The Sleeping Beauty, Op. 66

The Sleeping Beauty, Op. 66: excerpts

Introduction
Prologue:
No. 1, March
No. 3, Pas de six: a. Intrada and Adagio; e. Variation IV; Fairy of the Canaries; f. Variation V, Fairy Violente



Act I:
No. 6, Garland Waltz
No. 8, Pas d'action: a. Rose Adagio; c. Aurora's Variation; d. Coda
No. 9, Finale: Aurora's Dance of Delirium; The King and Carabosse; Transformation of the Garden into a Forest



Act II:
No. 13, Farandole and Mazurka
No. 17, Panorama



Act III:
No. 22, Polonaise
No. 23, Pas de quatre: a. Intrada; c. Variation II, The Silver Fairy; e. Variation IV, The Diamond Fairy; f. Coda
No. 25, Pas de quatre: c. Variation II, The Blue Bird and Princess Florine; d. Coda
No. 26, Pas de caractère: a. Red Riding Hood and the Wolf
No. 28, Aurora Pas de deux: b. Adagio; c. Coda
No. 30, Finale: a. Mazurka; b. Apotheosis

London Symphony Orchestra, Pierre Monteux, cond. RCA/Decca, recorded June 1957


TCHAIKOVSKY: The Nutcracker, Op. 71

Nutcracker Suite, Op. 71a

As I mentioned Friday night, the Steinberg-Pittsburgh Symphony recordings made by Command in the '60s, produced by company founder Enoch Light, with the legendary Robert Fine as "recording chief," were of strikingly high quality both musically and sonically. (After Command was acquired by ABC Records, the market was flooded with cheap copies of significantly inferior pressings, so you have to be careful to go back to the gold-label originals.)

i. Miniature Overture
ii. March
iii. Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy
iv. Trepak (Russian Dance)
v. Arabian Dance
vi. Chinese Dance
vii. Dance of the Reed Pipes
viii. Waltz of the Flowers

Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, William Steinberg, cond. Command, recorded c1963


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2 Comments:

At 12:54 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Rats! I wanted to hear Stoky's Finale to Swan Lake.

This morning, I decided to check out any youtube presentations of the Finale, and found a number that came close, but no ceegar, to Dorati. So I did a general search of Swan Lake and came up with a long discussion in Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swan_Lake

Seems like Drigo, whom Tchaikovsky admired, did some modifications to Swan Lake with both the approval of Peter, and after his death, Modest, his brother, and one of the mods was to soften the ending which was thought to be too thunderous, particularly in the brass. Now, both original and updated versions are available, which leads me to believe Dorati used an earlier score than the one used in most of today's presentations, as this is what stunned me then most as a youngster upon first hearing. It would also account for why a pas de deux was eliminated.

Fascinating reading. Tchaikovsy was the first to bring a symphonist's perspective to ballet scoring with Swan Lake.

A comment elsewhere mentioned that he conducted Swan Lake as was to have said that he was his happiest while conducting that music, which is something that comes through the music. It is unaccountably happy, no ecstatic, considering his personal difficulties.

 
At 1:15 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Ok, here's my choice for that finale. The music is close as I remember it, the choreography stunning, and overall, I think this performance overcomes the exquisite problem facing production of Swan Lake...how do we balance it so that visuals and music become synergistic?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yuyCHqyEM7c&feature=related

 

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