Your first record of music by a British composer

[Richard Tarleton]

Julian Bream playing Elizabethan music on lute back in 1967 (if this counts as British music). Much later, Finzi’s Clarinet Concerto played by Robert Plane and Northern Sinfonia (Naxos). I was going to try chamber music by E.J. Moeran but life got in the way then.

[ed. Richard: Snap!!]

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

An EP of Stanley Pope (with the RPO?) conducting P & C nos. 1, 2, 4 & 5.

The size of a 45rpm "single" with a photo of the conductor (adopting a very "young Beecham" look) on the cover? I know it well.

[Pabmusic]

The size of a 45rpm "single" with a photo of the conductor (adopting a very "young Beecham" look) on the cover? I know it well.

Phew…Thanks, Ferney, I thought I'd imagined it!

[Bax-of-Delights]

An EP of Stanley Pope (with the RPO?) conducting P & C nos. 1, 2, 4 & 5.

That'll be mine as well Pabs. Mid 60's.
But then I ran through the Euro/Russian C20th repertoire (Mahler, DSCH, Miaskovsky(!) etc etc) before I struck gold with

MOERAN: Symphony. Adrian Boult and London Phil on Lyrita LP. 1976

And after that I'd take up nearly all the Lyrita issues as they came out.

[Pulcinella]

Mine was an EP too: Mars on one side and Jupiter on the other.
No idea who was playing.

[Pabmusic]

That'll be mine as well Pabs. Mid 60's.
But then I ran through the Euro/Russian C20th repertoire (Mahler, DSCH, Miaskovsky(!) etc etc) before I struck gold with

MOERAN: Symphony. Adrian Boult and London Phil on Lyrita LP. 1976

And after that I'd take up nearly all the Lyrita issues as they came out.

Me too, B-o-D, except that I came to Lyrita through the Finzi Clarinet Concerto (John Denman/Handley). I suspect I had at least half a decade on you, so that the 1960s were my 'exploratory' years (in the sense of being almost totally dumb about the range of music).

[HighlandDougie]

As a snotty teenager who disdained anything that wasn't "difficult" - and as Boots the Chemist in Ayr used to flog off deletions cheaply (usually in mono) - I think that it was either Antal Dorati conducting Robert Gerhard's Symphony No 1 and Dances from Don Quixote or the coupling of Peter Racine Fricker's Second and Robert Simpson's First Symphonies. I blush with shame at the pretentiousness of it (although it gave me a lifetime liking of both Gerhard and Robert Simpson - not so sure about PRF).

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Whilst the 10,000 club members continue to crow, just remember who was first to 1,000... And 2,000.

Remembering that elusive first British record is more problematic. My father had numerous 78s including Purcell (Nymphs and Shepherds), Elgar and Sullivan. Also my Uncle gave a Sargent VW LP.
The first one I actually owned was Britten's Noye's Fludde (Argo), which must have been an exceptional pressing. I played it do death on all sorts of equipment, yet it remains in pristine condition.yt

[Ferretfancy]

Holst's
Yes, what else
An LP MfP, with Stokowski conducting - I can't recall the orchestra.

Almost certainly Stokowski's recording with the Los Angeles PO, recorded on Stage 7, The Goldwyn Studios and originally issued on a Capitol Full Dimensional Sound LP. The recording date was September 3rd 1956.

This disc was released in the same month as Sargent's stereo recording, made a couple of years later, and got rather iffy reviews in the Gramophone at the time. Sargent's version with the BBC SO is a more convincing performance with the BBC SO, and the stereo still sounds very good. The sound on the Stokowski is very dry and suffers from the dead sound studio acoustic.

Most of the Full Dimensional Sound recordings have been reissued on CD, the Planets has nice versions of Ravel's Alborada del Gracioso and a suite from Petrushka. They used a similar three microphone technique to Mercury recordings,but they were usually recorded in better venues than Sam Goldwyn could offer!
Well worth seeking out.

[Bryn]

Really not sure, but an early purchase that sticks in the mind was of string orchestral music by Rawsthorne, Berkley (Lennox, that is) and Fricker.



Actually, noting that that appears to have been a 1965 release, I had pretty certainly bought a flood salvage Spanish RCA LP of string orchestral music by Tchaikovsky, Elgar and Barber (Munch) somewhat earlier.



From the same source came a disc with Arnold's Tam O'Shanter Overture (The New Symphony Orchestra of London conducted by Sir Alexander Gibson), which work I was pleased to hear on EC this morning (same conductor, later recording with the RSNO).

[french frank]

Reflecting my very limited knowledge of music: Thurston Dart playing Giles Farnaby (and, I think, Orlando Gibbons).

No recollection of why I would have bought it, or where. I probably asked for 'anything on the harpsichord, please'.

[Bax-of-Delights]

[QUOTE=Bryn;407946]Really not sure, but an early purchase that stick in the mind was of string orchestral music by Rawsthorne, Berkley (Lennox, that is) and Fricker.



Spookily, I played that very record just yesterday (qv: "what are you listening to now" thread).

[Bryn]

Spookily, I played that very record just yesterday (qv: "what are you listening to now" thread).

Not as spooky as the Tam O'Shanter Overture, the UK title of the disc on which I had it being "Witch's Brew". I concur with your synopsis of the Leslie Jones disc. The Rawsthorne was the somewhat tougher nut, but well worth cracking.

[Honoured Guest]

First album by a British composer: Wombling Songs (Mike Batt)
Second album by a British composer: Remember You're a Womble (Mike Batt)
Third album by a British composer: Keep On Wombling (Mike Batt)

One track, Hall of the Mountain Womble, made much use of an earlier work by a non-British composer.

[Sir Velo]

What a (t)wit.