GISELLE - HELP!!!!

[GeorgeB fan]

You are all my last hope! I've being looking for sometime and have spent alot of money on finding a decent recording of Adolphe Adam's Giselle. The recordings I have for the most part are worthless. The tempo is either to slow, to fast; they bring out none of the beauty, lyricism, heartbreak or drama in the music. It's almost as if the conductors and orchestras doesn't feel as if this "merely ballet music" is not worthy of their time. BULL! I would love to have the recording of John Lanchbery conducting the Orchester Der Deutschen Oper Berlin from the ABT motion picture production of Giselle starring Carla Fracci and Erik Bruhn, but I don't believe that recording has ever been on CD. Bottom line is I need some serious HELP!!!!! Any suggestion would be most GRATEFUL!!!!!!!!! THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!

[Alexandra]

I can't help, I'm afraid -- I hope someone can. But I feel your pain The only "Giselle" I've ever heard that treated the score as though it were a score and not a long, tiresome jingle is the way the Royal Danish Ballet orchestra played it in the early 1990s (and I'm sure before that, as well.) It had an entirely different, darker coloration, with the mad scene really brought to a boil, and the act one curtain came down to thunder.

[Brioche]

Go to Amazon.com - through the link here and search for the Andrew Mogrelia

recording. I just did and you can listen to samples of the tracks!!

Mr. Mogrelia is now the 'house' conductor at SFB. I purchased his recording of Coppelia to use for a class demo and the tempi were perfect.

I hope this helps.

B

[GeorgeB fan]

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, Brioche!!! I did what you suggest and I think I'm really going to enjoy Andrew Mogrelia recording of Giselle! I also order Richard Bonynge recording as well. With him conducting the Royal Opera House Convent Garden Orchestra my thinking is if there is one orchestra that would do great justice to Adam's magnificent score it this orchestra!! Once again thank you so much!!

[Jack Reed]

GeorgeB Fan, would you like to say which recordings you've investigated and found unsatisfactory? It could help. In the meantime, I'd like to suggest the one conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas. For me, it enlivens the music as his better performances do; it doesn't cheapen it. It sounds as though he has great respect for the score, but by no means worships it.

He's one of the three best living conductors, for my money (I'm thinking here of the whole classical repertory, not just ballet; and the other two are Pierre Boulez and Colin Davis.), not that everything he does is first rate, but when he doesn't whip it up or drag it along, it's fresh and vital.

I also value highly his recordings of Nutcracker and Swan Lake and wish he had done Sleeping Beauty; meanwhile his recordings of Mozartiana and the Suites Nos. 2 and 3 (the latter never reissued) sound superb to me, too. Yes, I've wandered way OT from Giselle; that's how enthusiastic I get about Thomas's best work!

[Mary J]

I also love Michael TIlson Thomas! His Giselle is very symphonic - and his recording of the Prokofiev Romeo is heart-breaking. He manages such exquisite balance between the difference sections of the orchestra.

I also went ahead and got the Mogrelia version - it sounds very "danceable" - perhaps a little slower than concert versions. I remember in the LP record age (decades ago) there was a recording of Swan Lake conducted by one of the Bolshoi conductors that was performance speed. What a difference!

[Jack Reed]

Via the banner at the top of this page, I learned that Thomas's recording is available (new) for a mere $12. You can hear 33 excerpts from it, and our own Marc Haegeman speaks warmly of it.

[Solor]

You will run into problems with the 2 recordings that you are about to get a hold of, and those problems are the same that you have had with the other "crappily" conducted recordings. The Bonynge recording is the actual full, un-edited score of Adam, and the Morgrelia recording is same-o same-o as far as conducting goes. The only recording ever done with proper tempi and the proper editions is an out of print (as usual) recording by the Bolshoi Theatre Orchestra on the Pilz label. It is MASTERFULLY conducted by Algiz Zhuritis and is included in box set along with the Shades from "Bayadere", excerpts from "Don Q", Acts 3 and 2 of "Swan Lake (again conducted right), and act 3 of "Sleeping Beauty", masterfully conducted again, and the Grand Pas from "Paquita". Not to mention a great gala cd with "Corsaire" pas de deux and the actual original pas from "Fille Mal Gardee" by Dauberval. HUNT IT DOWN GIRL! You'll be glad you did.

Edited September 25, 2004 by Mel Johnson

[Mel Johnson]

Dauberval would be going a long way. I think you mean the Hertel music with choreography probably last in the hands of Alexander Gorsky.

[Jack Reed]

Having mentioned above with some enthusiasm Michael Tilson Thomas's recording of Tchaikovsky"s "Suite No. 3", I feel it's only responsible to add that I had in mind the one with the Los Angeles Philharmionic issued years ago on LP, because a public performance with his San Francisco Symphony I heard broadcast recently, and which might be issued on CD, is so different in respect of lingering over certain passages that anyone who is satisfied with the old one, with its steadier yet "breathing" tempos may be happier approaching the new one with caution.

That said, the new performance certainly has other virtues, like the transparency of texture Mary J and I admire, so that if it were the first performance of anything by Thomas I had heard, it would make his name one I'd be careful to pay attention to in the future.