© Warner Music Vision Competition to win the DVD Bolshoi Spartacus video review Mukhamedov in reviews recent Bolshoi reviews Charlotte Kasner reviews

The excerpts are not in chronological order and there is no particular logic to their presentation which makes the genuine historical insight difficult to follow for the uninitiated. The Schubert pas de deux with Ekaterina Geltzer and Vasili Tikhomirov that pre-dates the 1917 Revolutions is rather long and may be misleading: it seems to have been made especially for the camera and therefore is perhaps overlaid with contemporary film acting techniques that make it look more dated than a film of a contemporary performance. The problems of replaying old film speeds and of adding music make it difficult to appreciate the dance fully, but it nevertheless provides a fascinating suggestion of dance in that golden age of ballet.

The Swan Lake excerpts from 1946 and 1947 demonstrate the economies in place in war-ravaged Moscow but are all the more extraordinary for being filmed at all. Tutus are thin, the dancers have no tights and the corps are noticeably confused and ragged behind the 1946 pas de deux, but for all that it has the filmic quality of the previous decade with a shiny floor suggesting a lake and more than a hint of Hollywood. So much more interesting than the flat, filmed performances with irritating cutting that are now commonplace. The 1947 film is a real gem, preserving Maya Plisetskayaís début and, with shots taken from above the stage, suggesting the vast space that Bolshoi dancers had available and which influenced their broad style of dancing.
 

© Warner Music Vision

Asaf Messererís Ribbon Dance from 1940 is a curiosity not only in that it provides an opportunity to see a great maestro in action at his peak but in that it displays a form that was later to become associated with pre-pubescant female gymnasts! The programme notes credit it as being adapted from a solo in The Red Poppy ; what a pity that there is not more of this Soviet classic available on film.

There are the usual fireworks from Corsaire, Laurencia and Don Q of the 1960s providing some continuity between the films of Vasiliev and Maximova but it would have been interesting to see some of Vasilievís own ballets such as Icarus and indeed the apparently buried Plisetkaya repertoire such as The Seagull , Anna Karenina and Carmen. The 1970s are totally unrepresented.

Galina Ulanova is not present quite as much as one might expect and the legendary Romeo and Juliet is entirely absent. However the excerpt from Fountain of Bakhchiserai from 1953 presents a rare opportunity to see Maya Plisetskaya dance with her mentor.

The Flames of Paris excerpt from the same year is a reminder of how exciting ballet technique was in that period, even if now we might regard it as unplaced and messy. The athleticism of the company is extended into travelling into the vast spaces of the Bolshoi and Palace of Congresses stages rather than as today, upward into high extensions and stiff torsos. The most recent clip of Mukhemedev in Spartacus proves that characterisation was consistently uppermost although it has a tendency to look a little hammy in close up. Vasilievís subtle playing of the chump Ivan in The Little Humpbacked Horse belies the assertion that Bolshoi soloists are always big and brash.

It is odd that amongst these period delights, by far the biggest section of the DVD is devoted to Grigorovichís Spartacus. The Vassiliev film has been available on video since 1988 although alas with Bessmertnova not Maximova, and the full length Mukhamedev/Bessmertnova version is also widely available. Again it would have been interesting to see the Moisevitch or one of the Jacobsen versions or other examples of the Grigorovich canon not known in the West such as his revival of Bolt.

This is very much a DVD to add to a collection. The programme notes are informative enough to permit of further enquiry and it is to be hoped that circumstances in the new Russia permit of more such material being preserved and released.