Derek Solomons/Haydn

[Roger Webb]

Thanks Roger. I doubt if my rather unsophisticated hifi setup will show up these problems. Actually, I thought you were going to mention Symphony 38 "Echo" - I remember hearing it when it first appeared and the producer obviously cheated in the slow movement. You can hear an audible cough at one point and then you hear exactly the same cough in the repeat - one wonders why this was done. Lack of time for the orchestra to play it second time around?

There are some strange anomalies in recordings - many made more obvious by modern equipment and so on. There's a persistent rumour of a meow from the studio cat on the Solti Ring, but I've never managed to find it, and after questioning many who have listened to the recording, no one can tell me where it is.....but the rumour persists....unless someone out there knows.....

Oh, and haven't played 38 yet....up next!

[MickyD]

I think your keen ears should be able to hear that cough in the slow movement, it is during a very quiet passage. Would love to hear that cat meow, too!

[smittims]

One of my favourites is a distant door slamming in the Menuetto Allegretto of the VPO/Levine Jupiter Symphony. Because they play all the repeats, you hear it three (or is it Four?) times, in exactly the same place , which shows that they used the same take repeated: I'm not sure that's quite in the spirit of Mozart.

[MickyD]

I received my box this afternoon and am now revelling in the first disc - despite the remastering, the famous cough is still in no.38! But so glad to have this set in my hot little hand.

[Roger Webb]

I received my box this afternoon and am now revelling in the first disc - despite the remastering, the famous cough is still in no.38! But so glad to have this set in my hot little hand.

What is the exact time that it occurs Micky? I played the Qobuz version yesterday and didn't notice it! I'll have to listen on my headphones sometime - why I want to hear a cough, when I've spent a lifetime concert-going and hoping (usually disappointedly) that I won't hear any, I don't know!

[MickyD]

I'll listen to it tomorrow morning Roger and give you the timings ! Ha ha, let's just admit we are two anoraks who enjoy these sort of things!?

[AuntDaisy]

I'll listen to it tomorrow morning Roger and give you the timings ! Ha ha, let's just admit we are two anoraks who enjoy these sort of things!?

Re. Coughing...
Nick Warburton wrote a rather sinister "Fear on 4" play called "Music Lovers" - with Prunella Scales, Nigel Anthony & Edward de Souza (as the Man in Black).
"... the recording is very good, it captures everything."

Please keep the anorak-isms flowing - they're fascinating.

[Roger Webb]

Re. Coughing...


Please keep the anorak-isms flowing - they're fascinating.

Does anyone remember a performance at the Proms of Bax's Violin Concerto, probably mid 90s. I think it was Manoug Parikian playing. I went up for this, as I did when it was something out of the way - and I was a keen Baxophile back then - when in the first movt someone let out the most tremendous howl, falling in pitch, and sounding just like someone falling from a building. We in the Promenade instinctively looked up to the upper tiers expecting to see a body descending onto the unsuspecting stalls below. I have a cassette tape of the perf. somewhere, I must get it out and have a listen. When I play my Lydia Mordkovitch recording on Chandos I still 'hear' it at the precise moment it occured.

[MickyD]

OK, have just had another listen to no.38. Hearing it in more defined sound on a better hifi than I had in the 80s, the 'cough' actually sounds more like an exhalation of breath from someone at 1'40" in the slow movement. Bizarrely I find I can no longer hear it as clearly as I thought I did in the repeat at 3'24". All very strange. But maybe I really should get out more!

[Roger Webb]

OK, have just had another listen to no.38. Hearing it in more defined sound on a better hifi than I had in the 80s, the 'cough' actually sounds more like an exhalation of breath from someone at 1'40" in the slow movement. Bizarrely I find I can no longer hear it as clearly as I thought I did in the repeat at 3'24". All very strange. But maybe I really should get out more!

Ah! Yes I heard something about the time you mention, but it didn't sound like a cough - there are various minor 'noises-off' on lots of recordings usually an aspirating conductor or 1st violin...NYPO for example...or closer to home Lindsay SQ - I apologise to Peter Cropper if it's not him! - then there are pianist who really should have had a career in the vocal arts......who could forget Hum-along-a-Glenn! There's quite a bit of traffic noise on these isn't there.

Hope you're enjoying the discs Micky.

Having just done two hours' gardening before breakfast, I need to stay in more!

[MickyD]

Yes, very much enjoying them, Roger. I'm hearing more details this time around, possibly because my hifi is better now, or maybe since the remastering, which has been highly praised. Yes, the traffic noise from the Finchley Road is very present at times!

One artist I found intrusive was Jordi Savall on his early discs of Marais, a lot of grunting going on there!

[HighlandDougie]

OK, have just had another listen to no.38. Hearing it in more defined sound on a better hifi than I had in the 80s, the 'cough' actually sounds more like an exhalation of breath from someone at 1'40" in the slow movement. Bizarrely I find I can no longer hear it as clearly as I thought I did in the repeat at 3'24". All very strange. But maybe I really should get out more!

I've just had the box arrive in the letter box so I felt that I had to start my listening with the mysterious noise. I have a pretty revealing hi-fi set up and it certainly wasn't a cough. Inhalation/exhalation of breath more likely but it barely registers. That may have something to do with the (fine) remastering making everything else clearer and sounding more 'present'. Can I get back to the rest of the set now, please

[MickyD]

Oh dear, I feel quite guilty about creating all this furore over a 'cough', especially when the set is such an important re-release! Quite right, just listen to the music, Roger. I'm just finishing disc 2. Really looking forward to the discs I've never heard before.

[Roger Webb]

Oh dear, I feel quite guilty about creating all this furore over a 'cough', especially when the set is such an important re-release! Quite right, just listen to the music, Roger. I'm just finishing disc 2. Really looking forward to the discs I've never heard before.

Quite, Micky, my wife thinks I'm completely barmy (and not just because of the Haydn!) - I've been through my collection digging out 'Enigmas' for the Tribune on Sunday.....and tomorrow were going up to Elgar country to a pub that Elgar was known to cycle to on Longdon March. We do a lot of this sort of thing - when we were in Vienna we 'did' all the Haydn sites (Mozart and Beethoven too) and managed to get out to Eisenstadt to visit Haydn's house and of course Esterházy Palace where they recorded the Nimbus Haydn sym cycle.

I'll post the Enigma Tribune post tomorrow sometime.

[MickyD]

Roger, that sounds absolutely delightful, I hope you have a great time. I'd love to do some of those pilgrimages, especially the Haydn one. I remember the South Bank Show when Chris Hogwood and H C Robbins Landon went to the palace with the AAM and gave performances of some early Haydn symphonies in the music room. I think it's on YouTube somewhere, or at least the symphonies are, maybe not the documentary part.

Very much looking forward to the Tribune on the Enigma, fascinating to hear what the French make of the recordings chosen. Out of interest, who is your favourite? I only have the Barbirolli which I chose as it is considered such a classic, but I certainly have room for one more!