Originally posted by AmpH
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No no no - that's part of his evolution - they were wonderfully idiosyncratic and unique! -
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RVW's Dona Nobis Pacem is a work I particularly like. Andrew Litton released a fine recording of this with Christopher Maltman / Sarah Fox and Colorado forces on Hyperion last year. The performance is beautifully recorded and has real impact - it fairly leaps out of the speakers at times ! I love it.
Other Hyperion recordings of AL I have enjoyed include Ives symphonies with the Dallas SO and a pair of outstanding releases in the Romantic Piano Concerto Series of Litolff Concertos with the BBC Scottish SO and Peter Donohoe on piano.Comment
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I have been collecting many of the Litton recordings on BIS, both with the Bergen PO and this Copland with the Colorado Symphony. They are all vey fine. As JLW mentions the Sonics are demonstration class. His Bergen Rach 2nd is particularly good getting raves in the American reviews, and from me as well.Originally posted by HighlandDougie View PostPart of the issue of people being a bit sniffy about him is that, when I've seen him, he arrives at the podium and just gets on with the job. No hype. But, he can get great results: the Walton; the Prokofiev 6th mentioned by Jayne; and in what has become one of my favourite CDs of all time:
Forget Lenny - if you want to hear Copland in absolutely first-rate sound, played as to the manor born, this is it.
I would take exception to HD in his 'forget Lenny' remark about Copland. The Litton is very good, but the NYP and Lenny simply own this music, but no one will be unhappy with the Litton recording, which, btw, features the Conductor playing the saloon piano in Rodeo.
I asked Henry Fogel, former manager of The CSO, about Litton, this perhaps 20 years ago, after he had guested here, and the Orchestra liked him, but there was a perception that he was trying to hard to impress them. Perhaps in the intervening 2 decades he has acquired self assuranceComment
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Oops, my throwaway piece of hyperbole about Lenny wasn't really meant to be wholly serious - they are the performances I grew up with (CBS mid-price LP) so set a standard for all the others I've heard since then. But "owning them"? No, not for me, Richard. Litton's performances, unlike Lenny's, are of the complete ballets. The playing is as characterful as that of the NYPO and the sound is of a class which allows every detail of these scores to shine.Comment
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I was somewhat put off Litton by his following Bernstein in stretching out the final 11 note raspberry in Ives's 2nd. However, his Ives is pretty decent in most other respects.Comment
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I don't have enough familiarity with Ives to know the difference. The Litton recordings are the only ones I've heardComment
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Essentially, the last discord is marked as a staccato quaver (pom-Pom-diddle-om, pom-Pom-diddle-om, pom-TCHOM!) in imitation of the Barn Dance fiddlers who used to mark the end of the night's dance by playing any note except the tonic at the very end; very quickly, and as loud as they could.Originally posted by richardfinegold View Post
Bernstein (in the first performance, and in his subsequent recordings) held the chord on in the manner of the final chord of a Beethoven or Tchaikovsky Symphony. Ives is said (by some who claim to have witnessed this) to have reacted to the Bernstein premiere - which was broadcast - by spitting into the fire.
(Other "eye-witnesses" said that he danced a Jig as the Finale was playing. The two stories don't necessarily contradict - he might have enjoyed the performance up to the last chord; or his expectorant reaction was to his own excitement.)[FONT=Comic Sans MS][I][B]Numquam Satis![/B][/I][/FONT]Comment
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Wasn't it Andrew Litton who conducted the first complete performance of Maw's Odyssey?
it's somewhere in the archives.Comment
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Yes, for the BBC. Like Slatkin, Litton’s a bit of an American Anglophile.Originally posted by Alison View PostComment
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Five years ago he conducted a fantastic three parter-Prom, which I attended! The highlight was seeing the much lauded Yuja Wang playing I think Bartok PC No.2!! :)Originally posted by Beef Oven! View PostDon’t cry for me
I go where music was born
J S Bach 1685-1750Comment
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He gave the German premiere, apparently.Originally posted by Alison View Post
This is from the Boosey & Hawkes biography of Maw.
Maw’s most famous orchestral work to date is undoubtedly Odyssey. It took him fourteen years to write and has been billed as the longest continuous orchestral work ever written. It was finally commissioned by the BBC, completed in 1987, and premiered that year at the London Promenade Concerts by the BBC Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Mark Elder. At first it seemed wildly improbable that a 96-minute, large-scale orchestral work would ever be performed again, let alone become a very good selling classical CD on both sides of the Atlantic. However, in 1991 Odyssey was performed by Sir Simon Rattle and the City of Birmingham Symphony, and they also gave several further performances in England, and in Vienna and Madrid in 1999. After the 1991 performances, Sir Simon believed so strongly in the work that he famously refused to renew his recording contract with EMI until EMI agreed to record it.
Odyssey was given its US premiere by Leonard Slatkin in 1994 with the St. Louis Symphony, and received its German premiere by the Orchestra of the Deutsche Oper, conducted by Andrew Litton, on October 2, 2005. Andrew Litton also conducted the work in London in December 2005, with the BBC Symphony Orchestra.Comment
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Had totally forgotten about the Proms.Comment
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