Ah well, small process is better than no progress.
We visited Leith Hill Place. The front is sombre but the view from the back is fabulous looking to the South Downs. The childhood home of VW has some interesting artefacts of VW himself and his great uncle Charles Darwin. There is a battered upright piano on which he composed most of his symphonies. Well worth a visit of you are interested in his music. The NT does a nice tea and cakes as well!
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The RVW Society has just put on a 2 hour talk and discussion with Stephen Johnson, Andrew Green and Allan Atlas on RVW’s London Symphony. Fascinating. It was on Zoom but also YouTube so it may be, or become, publicly available. Well worth a watch/listen especially the second half. Much of the discussion was about the relationship to HG Wells Tono Bungay and also the darkness of some of the music particularly in the original version.
Interestingly, one of the speakers said that he appreciated the London Symphony and listened to it more and more the older he gets. Something I find as well.
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I must look out for that.
The BBC broadcast a play on Radio 3 " People Everywhere Will Sing", last October. Still available on BBC Sounds.
By Sarah Wooley. After the death of his wife, composer Ralph Vaughan Williams is determined to live life on his own terms. Starring Oliver Ford Davies.
I haven’t listened to it yet, although it’s saved in my downloads. So can’t comment on relevance or content. But may be worth a listen.
On tap for this evening is my latest acquisition, purchased from Discogs last week and delivered today. The seller advertised it as M-/M- and it sure appears that way. And it was just $40 for the 12-LP set. I have seen lesser graded copies for a lot more, plus expensive shipping from EU/UK to the U.S.
Score!
Antonin Dvorak’s Complete String Quartets
Perf. by The Prague Quartet
DG 2740 177 12-LPs
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Ah! Deutsche Grammophon used to be so good at churning out those big boxes full of lovely black discs! Takes me back forty or more years to the carefree days of University. How I wish that I had my magic wand!
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You’d probably not have you Naim gear, so be careful with what you wish for 
I always thought HMV/EMI had a real marketing tool in Nipper the dog to be just dumped by Warner Classics. At least they issue new recordings which are worth buying.
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Ditto. However, I’m most grateful to all of you for the discussion about the RVW symphonies and in the light of that I’m going to download the "London” sometime and add that to my library—as my first VW album. Thanks to all of you for an enlightening and interesting discussion.
Stephen
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That’s a great place to start. ‘A London Symphony’ has been lucky on record with Barbirolli (twice), Boult, Previn, Haitink, to name a few.
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@graham55 @Stephen_C @JosquinDesPrez and others I must say that having taken the time to listen to Boult and Barbirolli’s work in respect of English music, I am also exploring other composers’ work in their hands including Dvorak’s New World, which I’ve never really enjoyed on my HvK recording.
I first heard that as a recording on vinyl (so long ago I think only reel to reel and 8-track were alternatives or maybe wax cylinder) with Toscanini conducting and the Barbirolli version captures that same energetic, lightness of touch which leaves my HvK version sounding laboured.
The Toscanini recording is one I knew well enough as a child that I was happy to tell a family friend how it sounded all wrong on their Sony stack system. My parents were from the North of England, always valued honesty and raised us as such. They hadn’t mentioned politeness. My brother learned natural charm while I still have to consciously check myself nearly 50 years later.
Rafael Kukelik was able to get the reins of the Berlin Philharmonic (early after Karajan’s appointment) to make a very highly regarded set of the Dvorak Symphonies for DGG.
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In that case I shall be sure to have a listen! Thank you.
Indeed it is great set. Kubelik/Berliner’s 7-9th are a benchmark for me.
I also have those three as individual DG releases.
I found this box set in mint condition used at Absolute Vinyl, Boulder, CO for $45 about 10 years ago.
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I was lucky enough to find a good set of the Prague quartet set a little while back and have enjoyed it a lot JDP. I posted about it somewhere and I recall you replying and mentioning that you were looking out for a set at the right price. Looks like you found it! Enjoy…
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Dvorak has the misfortune to have one quartet that is very well known (‘American’). The rest tend to be forgotten.
The Alban Berg Quartet did a really nice recoding of Dvorak’s Op 108 in G on Telefunken. It’s a favorite of mine. I have all the Alban Berg Quertet analog recodings on Telefunken (that I know of). I really enjoy their playing.
My favorite of the “American” is the old Philips recording by Quartetto Italiano, paired with Borodin’s quartet.
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Me too. It doesn’t help that I’m not much of a fan of Walt Whitman’s poetry, I’m afraid.
Roger
The Alban Berg Quartett started off as Telefunken recording artists before switching to EMI to record a complete Beethoven String Quartet cycle. Those Beethoven recordings were among EMI’s biggest sellers on the then new CD format. I have a 3CD set at home of their ‘Middle Period’ quartet recordings, which must have been one of the first Japaneses-made CD sets to be imported.
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I think I have streamed some of their Beethoven cycle before. On LP I havr the complete cycle by Quatuor Vegh on the now defunct Valoius label, and Quaretto Italiano on Philips. I like both. I also have the three Op 59 (Rasumovsky) quartetes by The Amadeus Quartet on DG.