Favourite off air recordings

[Barbirollians]

After going through old CD-Rs the other day to find the 2001 proms Bruckner 9 with Wand I came across a recording I had made of the Beethoven Violin Concerto with Ida Haendel at the Proms in 1988 with the BBC PO/Downes. Affected by a strange noise that sounds like water dripping down a wall as it is the performance is stupendous there simply is not the slightest sound of a wrong note and her intonation and accuracy are breathtaking and what a rapt spell she weaves in the larghetto.

Do you have any off air recordings like this that you wish had been made available commercially. I would add that Wand Bruckner 9 !

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Those of us with a passion for New Music often only have off-air recordings of works we revere - that the Beeb hasn't ransacked its archive of Lutoslawski conducting his own works for their "Legends" series would be astonishing. Were it not entirely in character! (But really: the composer's Proms performances of the Fourth Symphony and the Chantefleurs/Chantefables [works he didn't record commercially] should be "out there"!) As for the archives from Huddersfield .... <Sigh>!

Of the more familiar repertoire, I'm less worked up: I'd love to hear the Haendel performance because it's a Haendel performance. But would I buy it if it ever were issued? Short of a friendly Premium Bond, probably not. I'd probably stick to concerts I'd attended, like the BPO Bruckner #7 that Barenboim conducted c1989-90-ish: but who else would buy this in sufficient numbers to make it commercially viable?

[Suffolkcoastal]

I've loads of cassettes (which I must transfer) of very rare off-air recordings mainly of American works, such as the 2nd performance of William Schuman Symphony No 2, Diamond's 6th, 7th & 9th symphonies (Bernstein conducting the premiere), Piston: Lincoln Center Festival Overture, Pine Tree Fantasy, Variations on a theme of E Burlingame Hill, Clarinet Concerto, and above all some priceless rarities by Roy Harris including the 1st Piano Concerto, 10th Symphony, Ode to Consonance, String Quintet, 1st String Quartet etc etc and the premiere of his 9th & 11th symphonies, Kubelik conducting the 5th and 9th symphonies (the latter with the Bavarian RSO a superb performance).

I've also some valued tapes of the 5 Cipriani Potter symphonies and a number of more recent British works. There has been so much recorded commercially yet there is still so much that has never been and may never be recorded commercially sadly.

[Barbirollians]

It is an interesting point as to who would buy those records but Ida Haendel is a bit of a cult artist I think as she is very much the last of the old school violinists left certainly of those playing pre war and in the 1950s .

Her Testament records I suspect have done well and there is always excitement when her live performances are released e.g the Beethoven/Sibelius on Supraphon and those SWR radio recordings .

I bet there are lots more recordings of her out there . Indeed I copied that Beethoven when the BBC did a week with her and Humphrey Burton of performances one Christmas and Ida H had chosen five of her favourite live Proms recordings. The Sibelius and Elgar with Rattle received great acclaim.

I should love to hear again a concert she did of the Tchaikovsky - my memory but not the Proms archive suggested it was a Prom and I remembered Rattle as conducting it . I turned on the radio halfway through the first movement and was transfixed to the end .

Listening to her and indeed this morning to Kreisler's 1930s recordings does make me feel that so many of today's violinists are technically perfect but anonymous.

As for new music that makes a great deal of sense - unless attached to a star soloist like Mutter or Alison Balsom with her Seraph record new music is just not recorded .

[silvestrione]

I have Rattle and the CBSO in Messaien's Chronochromie and Birtwistle's Earth Dances, both with a palpable sense of excitement and occasion (and occasional desperation)!

Much older, is Claudio Arrau playing Beethoven's early D Major Sonata...wonderful. The concert continued with some totally absorbing Liszt (one or two of the Petrarch sonnets I think) but my radio developed a buzz, so i did not transfer that part. Would love to hear whole concert on BBC Legends, but don't know any of the details.

Best of all, most prized and treasured, Maurizio Pollini playing Chopin Preludes (super) and Stravinsky's Movements from Petrushka (superlative).

[Chris Newman]

The other day I found an old shoe box of cassettes, mostly recorded in the 70s, some when I was a student. I must have a listen to see if some have survived. There are a few proms I recorded (Shhhh! actually recorded off the air whilst in the Albert Hall) with my tranny and cassette player wired together in my rucksack. Ah! perhaps that was Rob Cowan's rucksack secret too?

[pastoralguy]

I keep a shoe box for my mini-discs of recordings by Bo Holten. One day, our discs may be 'worth' something.

[PJPJ]

I have Arthur Oldham's "Psalms in Time of War" - SNO/Gibson from around 1976-7 - on a cassette which I played a lot. Now I have no cassette player - need to find someone who will transfer to digital for not too much cost.

[Petrushka]

The other week I started a thread on off-air recordings of concerts I'd attended in the 1970's and was desperate to hear again. I was promptly slapped down by FF for indulging in illegal activities. My most treasured would be those if only I could hear them the problem being that I have them on cassettes that died the death years ago. Here they are again in case some kind soul has them in a shoebox.

Beethoven: Missa Solemnis LPO/Solti Prom Sept 10 1982
Weber Freischutz Ov/Schubert 5/Beethoven 7/LSO/Bohm Dec 19 1978
Mahler 2 LPO/Haitink Prom Aug 14 1978
Tippett 4/Tchaikovsky 6/ Chicago SO/Solti Prom Sept 4 1978
Bartok Concerto for Orch/Bruckner 4/Chicago SO/Solti Sept 5 1981