John Lill Beethoven Piano Concerto no 2 BBCMM CD

[Barbirollians]

Another cracking BBCMMCD this month .

I do not know the Lill/Weller studio cycle on chandos but this account with Weller conducting BBCNOW from 2004 is top class and there is more sparkle and joie de vivre in Lill's playing than in his studio account with Gibson . I think it is probably the best recording of a Lill performance I have heard .

The fill up overtures are good rather than outstanding . Well worth getting .

[Ferretfancy]

Another cracking BBCMMCD this month .

I do not know the Lill/Weller studio cycle on chandos but this account with Weller conducting BBCNOW from 2004 is top class and there is more sparkle and joie de vivre in Lill's playing than in his studio account with Gibson . I think it is probably the best recording of a Lill performance I have heard .

The fill up overtures are good rather than outstanding . Well worth getting .

I always like to hear the BBCMM discs, and now and again an issue appears which is of great interest, like the Ida Haendel Brahms and Britten last month. I wonder though, how many of them really deserve to stay on the shelves? I felt this about the John Lill. It's a performance that I would be happy to hear at a live concert, but with so many versions of the Beethoven in my collection already, would I need this one as well?

What usually happens is that from time to time I have a cull, and many of the BBCMM discs find their way to Oxfam. Another factor for me is that too often the technical quality can be disappointing with larger scale orchestral recordings. I have always found that the instrumental and chamber releases have been more interesting and are usually better recorded.

I think that there has been a missed opportunity with these cover discs. The BBC introduce a wealth of new music every year, but second hearings are not very common. I for one would like to hear some of those premieres issued on CD. What do others think?

[Barbirollians]

I agree many can make their way to the charity shop but I think this is unfair on the Lill performance which I think is very good . Had it been just the Runnicles overtures then I would have agreed .

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I think that there has been a missed opportunity with these cover discs. The BBC introduce a wealth of new music every year, but second hearings are not very common. I for one would like to hear some of those premieres issued on CD. What do others think?

I think that that is a good idea - and one that has been tried out on at least a couple of occasions (Guto Puw's ... onyt agoraf y drws ... with Walton and Ireland, and a Turnage piece ... whose name & details escape me). I'd prefer it if there's been some of the repertoire that Barbie doesn't like could also be included, but the BBC Orchestras no longer venture into that territory with sufficient regularity to inspire much confidence that they might do it justice - but there's a superb La Terre est'un Homme led by Brabbins in their archives somewhere - near Barrett's No, perhaps?

As for the quality of the performances on BBCMusMag CDs - well, it's sufficiently good to enable an afternoon's listening without having to fast-forward through inane announcer commentaries! But I agree that the Chamber Music issues are generally superior to orchestral works.


As for John Lill - he did a very good pair of Brahms Concertos with Loughran and the Hallé for Enigma/ASV - and I so wish CfP had recorded his Beethoven cycle with that orchestra and conductor. (A damned fine Les Adieux for his ASV complete Sonata cycle, too.) I'll look out for the CD in the charity shops (I don't buy the magazine any more - Katie Burton-Rafferty writ large); Lill's live performances have been consistently excellent in my experience.

[gradus]

I hope that someone somewhere gets the money together to record John Lill in the Beethoven sonatas again after all these years. I can't think of a pianist from whom I would prefer a new complete cycle.

[Stanfordian]

Another cracking BBCMMCD this month .

I do not know the Lill/Weller studio cycle on chandos but this account with Weller conducting BBCNOW from 2004 is top class and there is more sparkle and joie de vivre in Lill's playing than in his studio account with Gibson . I think it is probably the best recording of a Lill performance I have heard .

The fill up overtures are good rather than outstanding . Well worth getting .

Hiya Barbirollians,

I have seen John Lill a dozen or so times in recital. I'm not sure he is playing at quite the same level now as he did once. If the BBC Music Mag recording is from 2004 that was in his prime years and I know Lill feels a special connection to Beethoven. I sometimes buy the BBC Music Mag so I will investigate.

[Tony Halstead]

just the Runnicles overtures

[richardfinegold]

Hadn't bought the magazine in a dogs age but I had to attend a dinner meeting for work that was as exciting as reading about ceiling wax and snuck off to a magazine stand that carries it. The CD has been in my car for the last week and I agree that the Concerto is a keeper and the Pianist, whom I was otherwise unfamiliar ,is excellent. The Overtures are
flabby and foregetable and I keep finding myself yelling at the car speakers when the audience offers it's tepid applause

[Barbirollians]

Glad to hear you agree Richard . I am just listening to it again this morning and the slow movement I think is exceptionally fine. One would have thought that the BBC would have had another Lill performance or two in their archives that they could have coupled it with instead of the rather pedestrian overture performances .

[Roehre]

....
I think that there has been a missed opportunity with these cover discs. The BBC introduce a wealth of new music every year, but second hearings are not very common. I for one would like to hear some of those premieres issued on CD. What do others think?

Couldn't agree more

[Roehre]

Another cracking BBCMMCD this month .

I do not know the Lill/Weller studio cycle on chandos but this account with Weller conducting BBCNOW from 2004 is top class and there is more sparkle and joie de vivre in Lill's playing than in his studio account with Gibson . I think it is probably the best recording of a Lill performance I have heard .
...

listen especially to the exhilarating cadenza