The classical music thread

Thank you. I have had both the mono originals and the stereo remakes on CD for ages. It would be the icing on the cake to have them on LP, particularly in high-quality pressings.

I hope you find them. The Analogphonic versions sound magnificant.

Thank you. I shall keep an eye out.

One of the greatest musicians of our time, Daniel Barenboim, has stepped down from Director of Staatsoper in Berlin. He seems to be in rather bad health. I admire his talent both as a pianist and a conductor. One of the very few who can do Mozart and Beethoven at the same level of musicality.
All I can do is wish him all the best.

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That’s unwelcome news, but understandable. Daniel Barenboim has been a star in my musical firmament for as long as I can remember.

He was, of course, the pianist, as one of the five young musical tearaways and friends in Christopher Nupen’s famous film of Schubert’s ‘Trout’ Quintet, along with Itzakh Perlman (violin), Pinchas Zukerman (viola), Jacqueline DuPré (cello) - to whom Barenboim was married for years until her multiple sclerosis destroyed her mind - and Zubin Mehta (double bass). As far as I know, that group never recorded the piece for LP, which seems a terrible missed opportunity.


A bit of a breakthrough experience for me this evening listening to this Vernon Handley, Elgar Falstaff. It’s a piece that has never really clicked for me before, but it bordered on the edge of a religious experience tonight. Revealed as one of Elgar’s very finest works.
Thank you Vernon, Dr Tominari, Ivor, Julian (and antecedents to both) and perhaps above all, Richard Shahinian. :smiling_face_with_tear::musical_score::smiling_face_with_three_hearts:. Honourable mention to Peter @Cymbiosis too.

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That’s a serious-looking bridge being built on the record cover. Does the blurb say where it is? (I ask, as it looks similar to Holborn Viaduct in London, close to the offices where I used to work.)

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Hi Graham,
It claims to be Manchester. Whether a real structure or an impressionistic imagining I don’t know…

Seems a bargain on Discogs at £5.63 including postage. Unfortunately I don’t have a record player!

Thanks for looking that up for me, Manchester it is!

John Barbirolli conducted masterful recordings of those Elgar works for EMI, often in Manchester with his beloved Hallé Orchestra. It may be worth trying to find some of them, if you want to hear another ‘take’ on them.

Thanks for the Falstaff reminder. Hugely enjoyed relistening to my Mackerras recording yesterday. On to the Davis and Rattle today … will also try and find the Handley. Thanks

“Tod” Handley is/was a much underrated conductor IMO, particularly in the English repertoire for which he was most famous. As well as the less mainstream composers, Arnold Bax and Robert Simpson for example, he made some fine recordings of works by Vaughan Williams (an excellent Symphony 5 to pick just one) and Elgar on the budget Classics for Pleasure label. It helped an impecunious student like me get to know and fall in love with the music of these composers.

Roger

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Highly enjoyable ‘concert’ this evening in the company of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and Paavo Berglund from the mid 70’s.

A recent Oxfam shop purchase of a work I’ve probably not listened to for a decade, but used to love the CBSO/Rattle CD of: Sibelius 7th Symphony.

Some surface noise even after a Humminguru intense cycle (need to work out how to afford a Degritter!), but the music was as subtly intense and moving as I recalled. Perfect to play as the soundtrack on your headphones as you view distant nebulae from your telescope in an observatory on a Hawaiian mountain top, or something like that…

With those goosebumps subsiding I turned to what next. I fancied a Piano Concerto, but matchingly contemporary to the Sibelius and alighted upon this Shostakovich disc that I acquired from a private seller of a small collection a few years go. Serenpitously (honestly!) from the same team of Bournemouth/Berglund. Perfect condition record and very nice performances. I played #1, but then ended up playing #2 as well. Just lovely…

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A couple of marvelous ballets use Concerto #2.

Here’s an excerpt from one:

Marienela Nunez is a real favorite of mine.

And here’s Mariinsky Performing Concerto DSCH (originally created for New York City Ballet).

I agree wholeheartedly. If he conducts then it will be worth a listen. The VW 5 is magical but then Mr Handley championed much British music and his work with the Ulster Orchestra is worth exploring. I particularly like his Bax and his Stanford discs.

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It used to be possible to buy two wonderful Vaughan Williams EMI LPs of Sir John Barbirolli conducting The Philharmonia ( if i’m right) of the Second (‘London’) and Fifth Symphonies. Sir John had recorded both symphonies before, including for the Pye Nixa label in the early day of LP. Sir John was not 'big on complete cycles, but those two clearly held a special place in his heart.

I played both of them incessantly in my time at University, but fortunately I got fresh, new copes before they were deleted (and I still have them now).

To my shame, I don’t know those recordings! I have just checked and have many VW with Boult but not Barbirolli! I have Barbirolli conducting Elgar but not VW. The Mark Elder/Halle recordings of both VW and Elgar are among my favourites. I do have Barbirolli conducting ‘English Tone Poems’ on EMI which is a favourite.

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I have two recordings on CD of Barbirolli conducting VW symphonies. Both are with the Halle Orchestra.

No.5 (recorded 1944) is partnered with the composer conducting No.4 (BBC Symphony Orchestra). On Dutton Classics, as gramophone premieres transferred from 78rpm shellac pressings. HMV originally.

The No. 2, with Barbirolli conducting the Halle (copyrighted 1958) is on the PRT label, with remastering by Michael Dutton

Is the Barbirolli recording that you mention the famous Temple Church recording made in the presence of RVW’s widow and others, which was made in the middle f a freezing winter night (1963, perhaps?) so that the microphones din’t catch the noise of bus engines outside?

The story goes that Sir John, the orchestra, and guests fortified themselves with Thermos flasks - the story does not relate whether there was anything stronger than just coffee in the flasks! (There was a Hollywood film composer also present, but I can’t remember if that was Hermann or Waxmann!)

It is a 1967 recording but doesn’t say where it was recorded. Recorded by Kinloch Anderson. The Tone Poems are not by RVW but Bax, Delius amongst others.