Eastop - Hanover Band/Halstead: Mozart Horn works - wonderful !

[MrGongGong]

Thanks Tony

Its very rare for professional musicians to rave so much about a forthcoming recording as has been the case with this one.

Really looking forward to hearing it all, and that's not what I would normally say about Mozart

[Nick Armstrong]

His Master's Little Finger.....!

[Barbirollians]

Er, um... what the poster of message #5 actually said/ wrote was
"I know this will sound like heresy to some
but (IMV) Pip Eastop is a far more skilful and fluent player than Dennis Brain was
even though Dennis was a genius and a truly great musician " -which is not quite the same thing as saying that Brain's 'technique was not up to modern standards'!

It's almost impossible and probably unwise to attempt to make a valid comparison between the Brain and the Eastop recordings since DB was playing a valved horn and PE a valveless one.

The posting , whilst expressed as an IMV and as heresy to some - strikes me as ludicrous . I very much doubt that Mr Eastop would believe he was far more skilful and fluent than Dennis Brain unless one considers that all professional players of the natural horn are by the very nature of the instrument more skilful than players of a valved horn . I look forward to Mr Eastop's recording of the Leopold Mozart on a garden hose soon !

The idea that he is far more fluent just strikes me as bonkers .

PS From the extracts on Presto the Eastop recording sounds fascinating and I look forward to acquiring it . I should be interested to know what natural horn fans think of the Signum classics account with Roger Montgomery and the OAE which seems rather smoother to my ears .

[LaurieWatt]

PS From the extracts on Presto the Eastop recording sounds fascinating and I look forward to acquiring it . I should be interested to know what natural horn fans think of the Signum classics account with Roger Montgomery and the OAE which seems rather smoother to my ears .

As you all know from Caliban's much appreciated-by-me initiation of this thread, I am responsible for getting this recording to the studio and on to Hyperion. I come in here just to pick up on Barbirollian's p.s.. I am, of course, very aware of and have Roger Montgomery's highly expert performances of these concerti, indeed, it could be said, somewhat perversely, that I was responsible for giving the OAE the idea to record them. What Roger does amazingly is to smooth over the hand-stopped notes almost to the point where it sounds like a modern horn. I asked Pip what he thought of this and he said "yes, it is amazing; I am not entirely sure how he did that, but more importantly I wonder why!" Then he went on to discuss the wonderful variations of colour in the sound which is what Mozart will have known and written for and which 'smoothing over' whitewashes.

I don't know, you takes your choice and some like it and some don't, but when we put this recording together I was anxious that in addition to making the most of the wonderful musicality in the concertos, Pip should get back to to sheer fun and playfulness reflected out of the boyish relationship that Mozart clearly had with Josef Leutgeb - you should read the outrageous comments he made on the scores to his soloist. You only have to go to Pip's cadenzas, which he wrote, to see how he makes the most of the huge range of colour available to the players of the time on their valveless instrument. As I say, you may or may not like it, but these concertos are such fun as well as musical masterpieces and IMHV Pip gets a great balance between both.

[MrGongGong]

The posting , whilst expressed as an IMV and as heresy to some - strikes me as ludicrous . I very much doubt that Mr Eastop would believe he was far more skilful and fluent than Dennis Brain

I know he wouldn't BUT I would say that
not just this recording but many other performances etc etc

The idea that he is far more fluent just strikes me as bonkers .

Bonkers or not i've heard him play many times and would say that he does have an extraordinary fluency and IMV (which is what I said in the first place !) I would prefer to listen to his playing than Denis Brain

thassorl

[richardfinegold]

As you all know from Caliban's much appreciated-by-me initiation of this thread, I am responsible for getting this recording to the studio and on to Hyperion. I come in here just to pick up on Barbirollian's p.s.. I am, of course, very aware of and have Roger Montgomery's highly expert performances of these concerti, indeed, it could be said, somewhat perversely, that I was responsible for giving the OAE the idea to record them. What Roger does amazingly is to smooth over the hand-stopped notes almost to the point where it sounds like a modern horn. I asked Pip what he thought of this and he said "yes, it is amazing; I am not entirely sure how he did that, but more importantly I wonder why!" Then he went on to discuss the wonderful variations of colour in the sound which is what Mozart will have known and written for and which 'smoothing over' whitewashes.

I don't know, you takes your choice and some like it and some don't, but when we put this recording together I was anxious that in addition to making the most of the wonderful musicality in the concertos, Pip should get back to to sheer fun and playfulness reflected out of the boyish relationship that Mozart clearly had with Josef Leutgeb - you should read the outrageous comments he made on the scores to his soloist. You only have to go to Pip's cadenzas, which he wrote, to see how he makes the most of the huge range of colour available to the players of the time on their valveless instrument. As I say, you may or may not like it, but these concertos are such fun as well as musical masterpieces and IMHV Pip gets a great balance between both.

Thank you Laurie for your efforts. I look forward to hearing it.

[Gordon]

Heads up!! Recording released today and now available for download at Hyperion. £7.99 for FLAC 44.1/16 and £12 for 24 bit.

[MrGongGong]

Not much point in wasting you time on this though Barbie

[Barbirollians]

Not much point in wasting you time on this though Barbie

I don't like downloads that is true !

I see IGI rated it outstanding in IRR but suggested it might be a bit of a love it or hate it recording .

Meanwhile , Mr GG can I repeat my recommendation of the Icon Dennis Brain box for you .

[MrGongGong]

I don't like downloads that is true !

I see IGI rated it outstanding in IRR but suggested it might be a bit of a love it or hate it recording .

Meanwhile , Mr GG can I repeat my recommendation of the Icon Dennis Brain box for you .

I've got the Brain recordings and mighty fine they are

Many of the hornplayers I have met in the last year have been raving about Pip's new CD
he is a bit of a guru amongst younger players BUT I would trust many of them over IRR

[vinteuil]

Heads up!! .

... many thanks ( and to all enthusiasts above) - have ordered nice shiny CD from presto for (I think) abt £12 incl p&p

[richardfinegold]

Heads up!! Recording released today and now available for download at Hyperion. £7.99 for FLAC 44.1/16 and £12 for 24 bit.

I paid $20 to Amazon for the CD. Gues I would have saved a bunch with a download, but like Barbs, I really don't care for downloading.
Besides, some one has to fund Laurie's retirement.

[Gordon]

I paid $20 to Amazon for the CD. Guess I would have saved a bunch with a download, but like Barbs, I really don't care for downloading.
Besides, some one has to fund Laurie's retirement.

I'm not sure what the actual objection to downloads is. I take the download in FLAC and burn a CDR then all's well!! You get the booklet that can also be printed to make an insert [leave out the multi-language pages] and the result looks just like the "real" thing. To each his own.

I enjoyed listening yesterday to a CDr made from the FLAC file - the tone is nice and round and with those characteristic muted notes [note the cadenzas too] brought out nicely without being intrusive. What it will be like on repeated hearing remains to be seen. I did think at times that the horn was a little too far forward in the mix but it's a quibble.

Good job Laurie!! The Haydns next and perhaps the Telemann in D?? - the one on Tuckwell's EMI double CD 569 395 2. I;m sure the boarders will help with sponsorship!!

[richardfinegold]

I'm not sure what the actual objection to downloads is. I take the download in FLAC and burn a CDR then all's well!! You get the booklet that can also be printed to make an insert [leave out the multi-language pages] and the result looks just like the "real" thing. To each his own.

I enjoyed listening yesterday to a CDr made from the FLAC file - the tone is nice and round and with those characteristic muted notes [note the cadenzas too] brought out nicely without being intrusive. What it will be like on repeated hearing remains to be seen. I did think at times that the horn was a little too far forward in the mix but it's a quibble.

Good job Laurie!! The Haydns next and perhaps the Telemann in D?? - the one on Tuckwell's EMI double CD 569 395 2. I;m sure the boarders will help with sponsorship!!

I've discussed it elsewhere and don't want to belabor the point in this thread, but I don't care for the time required to do a High Resolution download, the dropout issues, etc. I do the opposite of what you do, Burn the CD to a hard drive and then replay via a FireWire DAC.

[Gordon]

I've discussed it elsewhere and don't want to belabor the point in this thread, but I don't care for the time required to do a High Resolution download, the dropout issues, etc. I do the opposite of what you do, Burn the CD to a hard drive and then replay via a FireWire DAC.

Fair enough!! Since BT did some upgrades on the lines in this area [Super-fast coming - believe it when I see it] giving me about 16 MBit/s down-link speed I've never experienced any download problems - so far - even with large zipped files from Pristine et al. Recently downloaded a large file of the Pollini Beethoven piano sonatas complete from Universal and that came down just fine. I always choose FLAC if available and also burn a back-up to a HD. Must think about a DAC upgrade one of these days.
JUst to say that I don't do all downloads - just used my Xmas tokens to get a couple of box sets of Renaissance choral msuic that should see me through the spring!!