Sargent recordings

[Barbirollians]

I didn't enjoy the VW recordings in this box much with the exception of the singing in the Serenade to Music. The Wasps was rather overly manic to my ears at the start and then rather ran out of steam. The Tallis Fantasia no match for Boult or Barbirolli.

[smittims]

Well, VW himself took the Wasps overture at quite a lick. But yes, Malcolm had his own ideas about how music should go and didn't like being told otherwise. I was taken aback by a massive cut in the finale of his HMV Tchaik 5 (mercifully omitted from the Warner box)

An old friend of mine who sang in the first performance of Belshazzar's Feast ( I should add he was a lot older than I!) told me that Sargent and Walton disagreed strongly at rehearsals over the last four notes, Sargent wanting a big ritardando. against the composer's wishes. The difference can be heard in their respective recordings. Sargent kept this way to the end: I recall it in his 1966 Prom performance.

[Barbirollians]

Just the Sibelius and Ma Vlast to go now

I liked the piano concertos record more than I expected . Bax's Morning Song and the Bliss and Rubbra both given very good and interesting performances.

Also good I thought were the Facade Suite and Britten YPGTTO - a work that often leaves me a bit cold. His Walton 1 is good too just unfortunate to be released about the same time as Previn.

PS Sibelius 1 seems a bit showy especially the accelerando at the end of the third movement

[Barbirollians]

Liked the Sibelius 5 a lot. Pohjola's Daughter was a bit scrappy and unsubtle - no match for the marvellous Barbirolli recording . Finlandia started too majestically for my liking -( compare Silvestri who grabs you by the ears ) but soon picks up .

[oliver sudden]

-( compare Silvestri who grabs you by the

DO TELL

ears )

oh.

[Barbirollians]

Silvestri's Icon box is marvellous .

[Barbirollians]

Enjoying Sargent's Ma Vlast - OK not quite Kubelik or Talich but exciting and very good performance.

[oliver sudden]

Silvestri's Icon box is marvellous .

Heartily seconded!

[smittims]

I can't recall if we've mentioned Sargent's Gilbert and Sullivan series of the late '1950s . I found disc 2 of The Mikado (ASD 257) in a charity shop yesterday, complete with cream and gold 'early stereo' label and the gold 'stereophinic' medallion on the sleeve (which many buyers found was not designed to be peeled off) and it brought it all back to me. What a cast : Owen Brannigan, Elsie Morison, Marjorie Thomas, Monica Sinclair (a splendid Katisha) , Richard Lewis and John Cameron.