Live in Concert - 1958

[PJPJ]

Sir Malcolm Sargent conducts the BBC SO

Shostakovich - Symphony No 11
Beethoven - Symphony No 8
Bartok - Piano Concerto No 2 with Andor Foldes

with announcements, and Sir Malcom about Shostkovich.......

BBC SO Sir Malcolm Sargent

[amateur51]

What a treasurable link - listening to the 'posh' voices of the announcer and Sargent in 1958 takes me back to my childhood (I was born at the end of 1951). I loved Sargent's description of Shostakovich as a 'ittle man' 'reminiscent of Gustav Holst'. i wonder what repertoire Sargent conducted the 'Moscow orchestra' and 'the Leningrad' in?

i'll save the actual preformances til later - what a programme!- many thanks indeed PJPJ!

[PJPJ]

I'm pleased that you enjoyed it - more old concerts, with period announcements would be most welcome. And may I say what a fine vintage 1951 is!

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

Dear PJPJ thank you for pointing to such a delightful site ... i am posting a link on the jazz threads to the wonderful jazz broadcasts from the fifties!

and Abbado and Ax in '83 The Emperor

[slarty]

Sir Malcolm Sargent conducts the BBC SO

Shostakovich - Symphony No 11
Beethoven - Symphony No 8
Bartok - Piano Concerto No 2 with Andor Foldes

with announcements, and Sir Malcom about Shostkovich.......

BBC SO Sir Malcolm Sargent

Thanks for the link PJPJ - does anyone know the date of this concert other than just 1958?

[Oliver]

Sargent and Shostakovich....that reminds me! I used to have an arena season ticket for the Proms around that time and I didn't enjoy much of Sargent's work. However, I recall two Shostakovich performances that I found memorable and, to some extent, introduced me , a teenager,to the composer. The first was of that Eleventh Symphony, as mentioned above. But even more overwhelming was what I believe may have been the first UK or at least the first Proms performance of the Fourth Symphony- I still regard this to be Shostakovich's finest.
Sargent was notoriously a vain man but for that symphony he wore reading classes-I'd never seen this before- and managed to lead the BBSO through a very complex and, at that time, not well- known piece.
In retrospect, I'm pleased that I remember that concert when many mundane run-throughs of the Beethoven symphonies have been , quite rightly, forgotten.

[slarty]

Found the date - it was Wednesday the 22nd January, the first half of the concert was transmitted on the Home Service and the Shostakovich on the Third Programme.
Those were the days.