Composer: Pyotr Il’yich Tchaikovsky
Performer: Hugh Maguire
Orchestra: London Symphony Orchestra
Conductor: Pierre Monteux
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Eloquence
Catalogue: ELQ4808907
Release: 2016
Size: 306 MB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: cover
Swan Lake, Op.20, TH.12
Act 1
01. No.1 Scène (Allegro giusto)
02. No.2 Valse (Corps de Ballet)
03. No.7 Sujet – No.8 Danse des coupes (Tempo di polacca)
Act 2
04. No.10 Scène (Moderato)
05. No.13a Danse des cygnes: Valse
06. No.13e Danse des cygnes: Pas d’action: Odette et le prince / Deuxième danse de la reine des cygnes (Andante)
07. No.13d Danse des petits cygnes (Allegro moderato)
08. No.13g Danse des cygnes: Coda (Allegro vivace)
Act 3
09. No.17 Scène: Entrée des invités (Fanfares) et la valse (Allegro)
10. No.21 Danse espagnole (Allegro non troppo. Tempo di bolero)
11. No.20 Danse hongroise (Czárdás)
12. No.23 Mazurka
Act 1
13. No.5 Pas de deux: a) Intrada-Valse – b) Andante
Act 4
14. No.27 Danses des petits cygnes (Moderato)
15. No.29 Scène finale (Andante)
Although Pierre Monteux was a notable exponent of both Beethoven and the modern French school, it was with the Ballets Russes that his name was linked; Further, when he was conducting French repertoire in American theatres (particularly at the Metropolitan Opera in New York from 1917 to 1919), also took on the premières of Russian works, such as the first United States performance of Rimsky-Korsakov’s Golden Cockerel. Though associated largely with RCA and Decca, his final conducting appointment, with the London Symphony Orchestra (made in 1961 when he was 86) saw him record extensively for Philips and among these recordings was and an ample selection from Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake. In Monteux’s hands we are far removed from the lightweight ballet in which music would be ‘the obedient servant of the dance’, as Debussy put it, referring to Stravinsky’s Le sacre du printemps. This is richly performed, dramatic music-making.