Faà di Bruno, Giovanni Matteo [Horatio, Orazio] 83

Fistoulari, Anatole

(b Kiev, 20 Aug 1907; d London, 21 Aug 1995). British conductor of Ukrainian birth. His father, Gregor Fistoulari, a conductor who had studied with Anton Rubinstein and Rimsky-Korsakov, was his principal teacher. He conducted a performance of Tchaikovsky’s Symphony no.6 in Kiev at the age of seven (according to his own testimony). In 1933 he was appointed conductor of Chaliapin’s opera company (the Grand Opéra Russe), performing in Paris and elsewhere, and in 1938–9 he became well known in Europe and America as conductor of the touring Ballets Russes under Leonid Massine’s artistic directorship. He was active in Britain during World War II: in 1942 he conducted the London production of Musorgsky’s opera The Fair at Sorochintsï and in 1943–4 he was principal conductor of the LPO. He married Anna Mahler, the composer’s daughter, in 1942; the marriage was dissolved in 1956. In 1954–5 he was a guest conductor with the Royal Ballet and in 1956 conducted the LPO on its visit to Moscow and Leningrad. Fistoulari also conducted orchestras in Israel, New Zealand and elsewhere. He made many recordings, particularly of ballet music, but also accompanying Menuhin, Curzon, Katchen and other soloists in concertos.

ARTHUR JACOBS/R

Fistula.

Latin term for a pipe. Classical poets used the term to refer to the shepherd's Syrinx. It acquired a variety of meanings in the Middle Ages and Renaissance. Aegidius of Zamora (c1260) referred to a combination of fistula and tympanum (see Pipe and tabor). Other uses include: organ pipe (fistula organica); recorder (fistula anglia, angelica or anglica, ‘English flute’, or fistula vulgaris, ‘common flute’); transverse flute (fistula germanica, ‘German flute’); fife (fistula helvetica, ‘Swiss flute’ or fistula militaris, ‘military flute’); shawm (fistula pastoralis, ‘shepherd's pipe’) or panpipe (fistula pandi). Medieval treatises on organs refer to the wind trunk as fistula maxima, and various organ stops are described as fistula with some modifier.

JAMES W. McKINNON

Fitelberg, Grzegorz

(b Dynaburg, Latvia, 18 Oct 1879; d Katowice, 10 June 1953). Polish conductor, composer and violinist. He studied composition with Noskowski and the violin with Barcewicz at the Warsaw Conservatory (1891–6); in 1898 he won the Paderewski Prize for his First Violin Sonata. Until 1904 he worked as a violinist in the Warsaw PO and at the Wielki Theatre, and in the 1904–5 season he made his début as a conductor. Together with Szymanowski, Różycki and Szeluto he established the Young Poland movement and the Young Polish Composers' Publishing Co., sponsored by Prince Lubomirski. On 6 February 1906 Fitelberg conducted in Warsaw the first concert associated with the movement. In 1908 he was appointed chief conductor of the Warsaw PO and visited Vienna, Berlin, Leipzig and Dresden; in the 1912–13 season he was conductor of the Vienna Staatsoper. He spent the years 1914–21 in Russia and was then a conductor for Diaghilev (1921–4), giving the première of Stravinsky’s Mavra. From 1923 to 1934 he was again chief conductor of the Warsaw PO, then he organized the Polish RO, which he directed until 1939. Thereafter he worked as a conductor throughout western Europe and the Americas before returning to Poland in 1947 to direct the Polish Radio National SO in Katowice.

Fitelberg was an indefatigable champion of new Polish music: he conducted the first performances of most of the orchestral works of Karłowicz and Szymanowski, as well as some of those of Różycki. His activity as a composer was less fruitful, most of his pieces being written during the period 1905–8. Although his work was based on the German late Romantics, he was also influenced by Russian music of the second half of the 19th century. His most valuable orchestral works are the Pieśń o sokole (‘Song of the Falcon’) and the first Rapsodja polska, based on folk themes. Later he made many orchestral transcriptions, notably of works by Szymanowski, and he completed and orchestrated Karłowicz’s Epizod na maskaradzie (‘An Episode on Masquerade’). Following an instruction in Szymanowski’s will, he reorchestrated the second movement of the Symphony no.2, having done the same with the first movement in collaboration with the composer.

WORKS

(selective list)

Orch: Vn Conc., d, op.13, 1902–3; Ov., op.14, 1905; Sym. no.1, e, op.16, 1904; Ov., op.17, 1906; Pieśń o sokole [Song of the Falcon], op.18, sym. poem, 1906; Sym. no.2, A, op.20, 1907; Protesilaus and Laodamia, op.24, sym. poem, 1908; Rapsodja polska, op.25, 1913 (1914); Rapsodja polska [no.2], 1914; W głębi morza [From the Depths of the Sea], sym. poem, 1914

Other works: Sonata no.1, a, op.2, vn, pf, 1894; Pf Trio, f, op.10, 1901; Romances sans paroles, op.11, vn, pf, 2 pieces: D, 1892, A, 1900; Sonata no.2, F, op.12, vn, pf, 1901; Songs, opp.19, 21–3, 1v, pf

BIBLIOGRAPHY

SMP (S. Jarociński)

L.T. Błaszczyk: Dyrygenci polscy i ebcy w Polsce działający w XIX i XX wieku [Polish and foreign conductors working in Poland in the 19th and 20th centuries] (Kraków, 1964), 70–71

I. Bias: Grzegorz Fitelberg: katalog tematyczny dzieł (Katowice, 1979)

I. Bias and L.M. Moll: Grzegorz Fitelberg: kalendarium życia i twóczości [Chronology of life and works] (Katowice, 1983)

L.M. Moll: Grzegorz Fitelberg w Argentynie (Katowice, 1987)

L. Markiewicz: Grzegorz Fitelberg 1879–1953: Życie i dzieło [His life and works] (Katowice, 1995)

TERESA CHYLIŃSKA