Just got a CD of Lanchbery/Minkus's don q

[Solor]

I just purchased through the Orchestra Victoria web page a marvelous CD of "don q" as re-orchestrated/revised by John Lanchbery for Nureyev's stagings. It is only available in Australia, through thier site (Im not sure if its available commercialy down-under in the stores, etc.) Heres the link -

http://www.stateorchestra.com.au/recording...rding.asp?id=11

I know many people are not all that big of fans of Lanchbery's re-dos of Minkus's scores, but In my opinion his work on "don q" is one of his best (the absolute best being "La Fille Mall Gardee" of course).

It is not of the entire ballet - there are quite a few numbers that are not included unfortunatly, but for the most part all of the 'biggest'/most important sections are there, making the listening experience seem complete. The conducting is first rate, exaclty as it would be for the stage.

Lanchbery's orchestrations give the Minkus score a much more spanish feel, and sound beautiful on disc. The instrumentation is much improved, and very interesting. There are two numbers - Kitri's entrance, and her variation in the Grand pas where Lanchbery's arrangements are over-kill - Kitri's entrance music - very distinct rhythmically in the original Minkus - is over-done with very behemoth orchestration sounding like Wagner-gone-spanish, and the rhythm is completely lost underneath all of that - there is no loud 1-2-3 beneath the melody a la Minkus for dancing.

The other is Kitri's varition in the Grand pas. Lanchbery ruins the music. The original Minkus has a beautiful solo for harp, but Lanchbery has the harp accompanied by flutes, pizzicati, piccolos, and clarinet making the music sound goofy - it makes me think of hopping pink bunnys.

But as far as as improvments go -

the entire dream sequence is fabulously arranged by Lanchbery, particularly the opening number. In the original Minkus the orchestration is very dull and plain, Lanchbery imporves this a great deal. The grand pas is wonderfully arranged (except for Kitris variation) - the adagio is given to a solo violin, and Basil's variation sounds great accompanied by castanets and strings.

I hope that one day Lanchbery's arrangements for "Giselle" are recorded by someone. I am not sure why Adam's score was re-orchestrated by Lanchbery in the first place, as it was not necessary - but no less Lanchbery's work on the score is fabulous (watch the "Live from Lincoln Center" "Giselle" with Makarova and Baryshnikov to hear them).