The Chandos Grainger Edition

[Mr Pee]

The nice man from Home Delivery Network has just arrived with my 19 CD Grainger Edition from Chandos. 32.99 via Amazon. That works out at 1.73 per CD!!

I really enjoy Grainger's unique style; I've played a fair few of his Wind Band compositions over the years, but I'm greatly looking forward to exploring his Songs and Solo Piano music as I work my way through this tremendous collection- and of course the Orchestral works, some of which I know.

A voyage of discovery awaits!!

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Grainger-Volumes-1-19-Various-Artists/dp/B004HEDGGU/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1303137783&sr=8-2

[rubbernecker]

I think Grainger takes the biscuit as the most unbelievable Wikipedia entry I have ever read:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Percy_Grainger

His departures into the arcane with time signatures, electronic instruments, not to mention the self-flagellation and voyeurism almost beggar belief. A madman and a visionary genius. Having only a couple of Decca LPs of his conventional work, I would be fascinated to know what buried treasures this collection unearths.

[MrGongGong]

I'm interested in what you make of his Kangaroo Pouch Free music
and Random Round

both way before their time IMV
and more than a shade of La Monte Young about the Free music (also the machine seems to be similar ? to the Oramics Machine) and Riley in the Random Round etc etc

maybe you will go on to listen to more of this stuff !!
you never know

[Mr Pee]

I think Grainger takes the biscuit as the most unbelievable Wikipedia entry I have ever read:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Percy_Grainger

His departures into the arcane with time signatures, electronic instruments, not to mention the self-flagellation and voyeurism almost beggar belief. A madman and a visionary genius. Having only a couple of Decca LPs of his conventional work, I would be fascinated to know what buried treasures this collection unearths.

Thanks for that link, rubbernecker. I'm inclined to agree! I've always known that he was a tad eccentric, but I've never really known more than that.

Some of the more bizarre excerpts:-

Grainger was a vegetarian not fond of vegetables and lived on nuts, boiled rice, wheatcakes, cakes, bread and jam, ice cream and oranges.

I love that. "A vegetarian not fond of vegetables...."

In London, Grainger was known as "the jogging pianist" for his habit of racing through streets to a concert, where he would bound on stage at the last minute because he preferred to be exhausted when playing. After a concert in South Africa, he walked 105 km to the next, arriving just in time . When travelling by ship, he spent his free time shovelling coal in the boiler room. He gave more than 3,000 concerts as a pianist or conductor.

In 1910, Grainger began designing and making his clothing, ranging from jackets, to shorts, togas, muumuus and leggings, all from towels and intricate grass and beaded skirts. He often wore it in public. He also designed a crude forerunner of the sports bra for his Danish sweetheart, Karen Kellerman, née Holten.

Mr GG:-

maybe you will go on to listen to more of this stuff !!
you never know

Who knows? Stranger things have happened- just look at the excerpts from Wikipedia above!!

[MrGongGong]

Such a shame you missed Alvin Lucier last time he was in the UK mrP
I'm sure Percy would have been there like a shot !!!

[pastoralguy]

There's a story that he played the Greig Concerto with the Scottish Orchestra (as it was then) in Edinburgh. After the performance he left the platform and walked to Glasgow for the following evenings concert and arrived just in time to play the Greig again!

[MrGongGong]

Wasn't it Graingers piano roll version of the Grieg that was at the proms a few years ago ?

[LeMartinPecheur]

MrGG: yes it certainly was.

One of my favourite Grainger stories is of him walking across a good stretch of Australian desert to a recital date in an outback town. Arriving in good time in his original style of walking costume (made from hand-sewn towelling IIRC), he was promptly arrested as a vagrant and barely released in time to tickle the ivories.

And then there's his party-piece of hurling a tennis ball high into the air outside the front door of any house he was visiting, then running through the house to catch it outside the back door!

(Don't most house guests do that?? Dunno if he ever visited Buck House mind...)

[Chris Newman]

I received today an Australian Eloquence double disc set of Grainger. The conducted works are shared between Benjamin Britten, Steuart Bedford and John Eliot Gardiner. I am really looking forward to The Warriors tomorrow. I already have Gardiner Choral numbers: it will be interesting to compare them with Britten's approach.

[amateur51]

I received today an Australian Eloquence double disc set of Grainger. The conducted works are shared between Benjamin Britten, Steuart Bedford and John Eliot Gardiner. I am really looking forward to The Warriors tomorrow. I already have Gardiner Choral numbers: it will be interesting to compare them with Britten's approach.

Sounds like a true find, Chris

Does it contain Shallow Brown by any chance? Wonderful stuff

[amateur51]

The nice man from Home Delivery Network has just arrived with my 19 CD Grainger Edition from Chandos. 32.99 via Amazon. That works out at 1.73 per CD!!

I really enjoy Grainger's unique style; I've played a fair few of his Wind Band compositions over the years, but I'm greatly looking forward to exploring his Songs and Solo Piano music as I work my way through this tremendous collection- and of course the Orchestral works, some of which I know.

A voyage of discovery awaits!!

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Grainger-Vo...3137783&sr=8-2

Thanks for pointing out this extreme bargain, Mr Pee!

I look forward to hearing your comments once you've had a chance to get stuck in

[MrGongGong]

from what I have read I think he was much more of an experimentalist than history would tell us
more in the Harry Partch , La Monte Young, Daphne Oram mould than the RVW world of Orchestral folksongs
though i would be tempted by the CDs if they included some of the more "eccentric' musics

[Chris Newman]

Sounds like a true find, Chris

Does it contain Shallow Brown by any chance? Wonderful stuff

Hi, am51,

Yes, BB conducts that with John Shirley-Quirk, the Ambrosians and the ECO. I love the Gardiner version: it is a real eye moistener.

bws
Chris.

[amateur51]

Hi, am51,

Yes, BB conducts that with John Shirley-Quirk, the Ambrosians and the ECO. I love the Gardiner version: it is a real eye moistener.

bws
Chris.

Many thanks for this, Chris - sounds like a must-have!

[Chris Newman]

The Australian Eloquence set includes the original notes by Peter Pears and John Bird (the TV one) and they are so personally written that you can almost hear their very distinctive spoken voices. I am tempted by the Chandos Grainger set. That is the trouble he is addictive.