Sargent recordings

[smittims]

The Prokofiev 5 was released in Britain by World Record Club, as was Sargent's Pines and Fountains of Rome. I think both were originally Everest recordings.

[cloughie]

https://amzn.eu/d/6rq73XD

[smittims]

Back of the net, cloughie! Not a bad guess, eh?

[Maclintick]

I remember a Sargent disc of 'Famous Popular Overtures' on HMV Concert Classics that I used to enjoy (Hebrides, Meistersinger, Silken Ladder, Roman Carnival and Bartered Bride, I think)

I've still got my copy - now with slightly-foxed sleeve. The first classical record I bought...due for a spin later, I feel..

[Retune]

Sargent's Beethoven piano concertos with Schnabel and the LPO / LSO, recorded at Abbey Road in the 30s, are well worth the listen; 3 & 4 are particular favourites for me (LPO, 1933), nicely restored by Mark Obert-Thorn on Naxos.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqQOPbRXPao&list=PLNewSgG9pmoZX0tqX6kVp9mFrOZvY9DrF

[oliver sudden]

Apparently he had to stand on a shelf above the orchestra, harnessed to the wall, conducting with his right hand and pushing the singers' heads into the horn at appropriate moments with his left hand.

Good lord, I’d love to see that. Can there be a biopic please?

[oliver sudden]

His Everest Shostakovich 9 introduced me to the work, and it was only later that I realised that the second movement was a good deal too slow.

It is indeed quite a bit slower than the metronome mark but nearly everyone is, some rather more so than Sargent. It’s only a few seconds longer than Kondrashin over the full movement and Sargent handles the time signature changes in the main material rather better!

[Bella Kemp]

I wonder if anyone heard 'An Impression on a Windy Day,' this morning on Breakfast? Tuning in halfway through I played that delicious game of Guess the Composer - but ended up thinking it was something obscure by Josef Suk. I had had no idea that Sargent was a composer.

[smittims]

I would have listened if I'd known it was going to be broadcast. But I don't think they publish a full list in advance for 'Breakfast' just in case the small talk leaves insufficient time for music .

I have heard 'Windy day' in the past and I agree it's a difficult work to attribute. It makes me wonder what else Sargent might have given us had he devoted more time to composing .

[Dave2002]

I'm curious that this discussion has emerged. Has the box been reissued? I've probably got it, but will have to check. I have some LPs with Sargent - Schubert 8 and Rosamunde, and Holst's Planets are a few. There may even be some 78s - though not sure whether I inherited them or not. I rescued a few when my parents' house was sold. I recall some 78s with well known singers from earlier periods.

[Maclintick]

In my youth I owned several Sargent LPs, apart from the Famous Popular Overtures above, mostly because he often appeared on mid-price labels such as HMV Concert Classics or CFP - a cost-effective way for an impecunious student to acquire decent recordings at modest outlay. They weren't all gold-standard, and a rough-&-ready Walton 1 taped in 1966 when he was already quite ill suffered in comparison to the celebrated LSO/Previn account released in the same month, but an excellent earlier stereo BBCSO Sibelius 5 coupled with a marvellously atmospheric Pohjola's Daughter still stands comparison with any, IMHO.

[Barbirollians]

The Famous Popular Overtures are in the box - I would say sound rather than thrilling performances.

[akiralx]

I do recall his accompanying Dame Moura Lympany with the RPO in the Rachmaninov Second Concerto, a CfP LP reissue I played to death in my teens.

[vibratoforever]

The first Sargent record I had was the Ace of Clubs Planets with the LSO and I wore it out. The mono recording was excellent for its time and I later got the cd on Pristine. As with the LSO Enigma also on Decca, not sure his stereo recordings bettered the earlier ones.

[Barbirollians]

My grandparents had that LSO Sargent Enigma - was it coupled with the Tallis Fantasia on a reissue ?