[1] Anatole conducted for the first time, at the age of seven, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's 6th Symphony, the Pathetique,[3][4] at a charity concert at the Opera House in Kyiv.
[5] He also led The Barber of Seville at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées with a cast from La Scala including Stabile, Lomanto, Chaliapin and Vichnevska.
[5] In 1933, he began his collaboration with Léonide Massine's Ballets Russes in Paris, touring in London and to 61 cities in the United States in 1937.
[5] In 1939 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.
His repertoire widened to include items like his father-in-law Gustav Mahler's Fourth Symphony in his busy concert schedule.
Operatic work in Britain began with a The Fair at Sorochyntsi production that toured the country,[2] starting at the Savoy Theatre in 1941 and notching up 200 performances around the UK.
[1] During the 1950–51 season at the Teatro Liceo, Barcelona he led a series of performances of three Russian works, Khovanshchina, Le Coq d'Or, and The Invisible City of Kitezh.
[citation needed] Besides his ballet recordings, Fistoulari conducted many well-known singers on record including Jan Peerce, Inge Borkh, Victoria de los Ángeles, and Boris Christoff, pianists like Edwin Fischer, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Clifford Curzon, Wilhelm Kempff, Earl Wild and Shura Cherkassky, as well as violinists such as Yehudi Menuhin and Nathan Milstein.
[1] 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.