19 Facts About Anatole Fistoulari

Anatole Fistoulari was one of the great British conductors of the 20th century.

Anatole Fistoulari conducted for the first time, at the age of seven, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's 6th Symphony, the Pathetique, at a charity concert at the Opera House in Kyiv.

Anatole Fistoulari then conducted a concert of the Imperial Court Orchestra in Odessa from memory.

In 1933, Anatole Fistoulari was chosen to conduct several seasons of the Grand Opera Russe at the Theatre du Chatelet in Paris with the Russian bass Feodor Chaliapin, having already conducted over one hundred performances by a small Russian company which had toured France, Belgium, Spain and Italy.

Anatole Fistoulari led The Barber of Seville at the Theatre des Champs-Elysees with a cast from La Scala including Stabile, Lomanto, Chaliapin and Vichnevska.

In 1939 Anatole Fistoulari joined the French army, but was invalided out and after the Fall of France managed to get to Cherbourg, having left all his possessions in Paris, and escaped to England where he remained for the rest of World War II.

Anatole Fistoulari's repertoire widened to include items like his father-in-law Gustav Mahler's Fourth Symphony in his busy concert schedule.

Anatole Fistoulari conducted opera and concert schedules especially with either the London Philharmonic or London Symphony Orchestras.

Anatole Fistoulari conducted operas in New York and was a guest conductor in many countries.

Anatole Fistoulari introduced Dmitri Shostakovich's Symphony No 6 to the UK in 1943.

Anatole Fistoulari was a guest conductor with the Royal Ballet, London in 1954 and 1955.

Anatole Fistoulari made a number of studio recordings from the late 1940s through the mid-1960s, most of them dance or ballet music, overtures and concertos.

Anatole Fistoulari was a noted conductor of Tchaikovsky and the Russian School, as well as romantic and impressionistic French music.

Anatole Fistoulari made his last recordings with Decca Phase 4 in the early 1970s, including Tchaikovsky's 4th Symphony.

Anatole Fistoulari's last recording was in June 1978 with Takayoshi Wanami and the Philharmonia Orchestra in the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto in E minor, Op.

In 1942 Anatole Fistoulari married Anna Mahler, daughter of the composer Gustav Mahler.

Anatole Fistoulari was living in Hampstead, having fled Nazi-occupied Austria.

Anatole Fistoulari suffered from crippling arthritis during the latter years of his life; and was cared for by his second wife, the Scottish violinist Elizabeth Lockhart.

Anatole Fistoulari died in London at Queen Mary's Hospital on 21 August 1995.