Unfashionable records that you love

[johnb]

Bruno Walter's stereo set on CBS of the last Mozart symphonies, big band, slow slow movements, doubtless inauthentic, but the love comes through.

I've just ordered one of seemingly few remaining Bruno Walter: The Edition boxes as I knew I would regret not getting the box while I have the opportunity.

[johnb]

I was nearly going to mention Julian Bream. Still supreme in the guitar repertoire - but lute playing has moved on (or back ) to the extent that I no longer get quite the same pleasure from listening to a lute played with nails. It's partly that the instruments have changed. But Bream was my introduction to this repertoire, as he was to the vihuela and early guitar repertoire. And only last June at the Aldeburgh Festival, I heard Ian Watt perform a feat I haven't heard anyone do since Bream in the early '70s - play the lute and the guitar in the same concert, nails and all. He accompanied some Dowland songs on the lute and played the Britten Nocturnal for guitar on the same stage where Bream had given the first performance 50 years ago. So it can still be done.

It was through Bream's recordings that I first got to know Dowland's lute music. Yes, by current standards, his playing was "inauthentic" but he infused the music with a vitality together with a sense of pulse and he had the ability to sustain a musical line (or lines). I find some or all those lacking in the overwhelming majority of lute recordings, even recordings by very highly regarded lutenists.

(Sorry, this is a hobby-horse of mine.)

[Richard Tarleton]

It was through Bream's recordings that I first got to know Dowland's lute music. Yes, by current standards, his playing was "inauthentic" but he infused the music with a vitality together with a sense of pulse and he had the ability to sustain a musical line (or lines). I find some or all those lacking in the overwhelming majority of lute recordings, even recordings by very highly regarded lutenists.

I know exactly what you mean john - I feel a pm coming on - worth mentioning that Bream himself singled out Nigel North for special mention, in a talk to the Lute Society:

Julian Bream
London, September 2002, in a talk given to the Lute Society.
"I remember going to a remarkable recital, one which I wish I had the ability to give: it was one of Nigel North's Bach recitals, and I was bowled over by how masterful and how musical it was. A real musical experience, something you don't always get from guitar and lute players and which, in general, is pretty rare."

[tigajen]

Beecham again in his arrangement of Messiah, to paraphrase the original Gramophone reviewer; do acquire this set, sell your car if you have to, in any case there's nowhere to park it nowadays (c 1960).
To which I'd add another favourite Messiah, Sargent RLPO and the Huddersfield Choral Society in all their majesty, I guess my aversion to more recent small-scale performances is evident.

Which Sargent is it you refer to? The 1946 or the 1959? I have the 1959 but have often been tempted by the 1946

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Which Sargent is it you refer to? The 1946 or the 1959? I have the 1959 but have often been tempted by the 1946

Wasn't there a mono LP version in the early 50s as well? (Also the Readers Digest Royal Choral Society one.)

[tigajen]

Wasn't there a mono LP version in the early 50s as well? (Also the Readers Digest Royal Choral Society one.)

You've got me there! The only ones I know of are 1946?baillie on Dutton and 1959/Morrison on EMI

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

You've got me there! The only ones I know of are 1946?baillie on Dutton and 1959/Morrison on EMI

Sargent's four Messiah recordings were 1946 (on nineteen 78s), 1954 (mono) 1959 (stereo remake) and 1964 (with the Royal Choral Society - the earlier ones having been with the Huddersfield Choral Society)

[Alain Maréchal]

Respighi: Ancient Airs and Dances for the Lute c. Dorati.

[jayne lee wilson]

JS Bach, Art of Fugue, VSO/VRO/Hermann Scherchen, 1965. (Millennium Classics 1997).

...where musical experience passes over into metaphysics...

[tigajen]

Sargent's four Messiah recordings were 1946 (on nineteen 78s), 1954 (mono) 1959 (stereo remake) and 1964 (with the Royal Choral Society - the earlier ones having been with the Huddersfield Choral Society)

Thank you

[Tony Halstead]

Pretty well all of Sir Thomas Beecham's MOZART recordings.
Has any other conductor ever phrased, shaped and generally caressed the exquisite slow movement of Symphony 34 in C with such tender, loving care?

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I never knew Beecham had recorded Symphony no. 34. Thank you for the nudge, Tony.

[Don Petter]

Many of the replies have mentioned favourites of mine.

I could probably add more, but I really don't know what is or isn't unfashionable, nor do I care! I'll just keep reading the recommendations.

[Don Petter]

I never knew Beecham had recorded Symphony no. 34. Thank you for the nudge, Tony.

It was issued on the World Record Club 5LP set (SHB 20), which contained Mozart's Symphonies Nos. 29, 31, 34, 35, 36, 38, 39, 40, and 41, recorded from 1934 to 1940. The orchestra was the London Philharmonic.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

And available via DUTTON:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mozart-Symphonies-Nos-29-31/dp/B000005CZS/ref=sr_1_6?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1423561908&sr=1-6&keywords=beecham+mozart+symphonies