BBCMusicMagazine Cover CD RVW and H Parry

[Chris Newman]

What do people think of the latest BBC Music Magazine CD, Vaughan William's Ninth Symphony and Parry's Elegy for Brahms, BBC SO with Andrew Davis?

[Petrushka]

What do people think of the latest BBC Music Magazine CD, Vaughan William's Ninth Symphony and Parry's Elegy for Brahms, BBC SO with Andrew Davis?

I played this yesterday and think that whar we have here is the finest 9th so far recorded. I heard details in the score that I've never noticed before. No doubt the occasion of it being performed on the exact 50th anniversary of RVW's death added much to the atmosphere. Not heard the Parry yet but even with just the RVW 9th this is a disc to treasure and one of the very best to appear with the magazine. Bravo and encore!

[PJPJ]

I'll pick up my copy later this week - I've been hoping this performance of VW9 would get a release ever since that memorable concert. Foxy will be pleased, too.

[BBMmk2]

I havnt played mine yet! But if its the finest recording of the 9th so far, well, I must do that today!

[Chris Newman]

It is a very fine performance of the RVW 9 though to get the detail coming through I find I have to turn it up quite a lot more than most recordings and it suffers the usual Radio 3 sudden dives in volume in loud passages. I am pleased that Sir Andrew does not skim rapidly through the piece as he is sometimes prone to do. He is more exciting and revealing than Tod Handley (whose CfP cycle as a whole is excellent) and is far better recorded than Sir Adrian Boult's murky (the first ever in 1958) recording on the old American Everest label with the LPO. On the other hand Sir Adrian often puts more "swing" into the jazzy bits and lets the saxophones and percussion be freer and wilder. I am glad I have both performances. Sir Adrian's is one of the few Lps I kept when space became a premium. Sir Andrew recorded it on the 50th anniversary of RVW's death, as Petrushka reminds us, whilst Sir Adrian, fifty years to the day in 1958 before Sir Andrew's Prom performance, had just told the LPO that RVW had died and both orchestras play their hearts out.

The Parry Elegy for Brahms from 1897 is a beautiful piece not performed at the Proms until last year. Curiously, after occasionally sounding Brahmsian (Symphony No 4) in places the repeated ascending and descending phrases and the sudden unleashings of screwed up tension make the piece sound to me much more like Tchaikovsky (Symphony No 4 and 6?) but, whatever, it deserves to become a regular feature of concerts.

[Suffolkcoastal]

I've never been the greatest fan of Andrew Davis in RVW, I still think his much praised recording of the 6th is sloppy, however the performance he conducted of the 9th at the Proms was absolutely superb so I think I'll be purchasing this month's magazine!

[Ferretfancy]

I've been plagued by an over sensitive hearing problem lately, so I've been listening to quieter stuff, but I just had to hear the VW 9 when my copy arrived. the BBC SO had already given us the Tallis Fantasia, Serenade to Music and Job by the time they came to play it that August evening, but I don't detect any tiredness in the performance. It's very fine indeed.
I like the second Boult / LPO recording, which brings out a little more of the darkness in the work, particularly in those massive waves of sound at the end, but the recording reveals less detail than the Andrew Davis Prom does. I'm grateful for the fact that there is no applause, it was pretty enthusiastic on the night.

Incidentally, Stokowski made gave the first American performance at Carnegie Hall on the 25th September 1958, the concert was a 50th Anniversary commemoration of His first performances there. Originally Shostakovich's 11th was planned, but this was replaced by the Vaughan Williams when Stokowski heard of his death. It has been available on Cala, and is well worth hearing with Stokowski once again a generous pioneer.

I wonder when the next opportunity will come to hear a live performance of this visionary symphony, fortunately there are good recordings, but RVW's music seems to be in the shadows a bit just now.

[salymap]

I have hearing problems too at rhe moment with terrible tinnitus so my copy of this new MM RVW 9th is still waiting to be played.
It is very hard to shake off the chorus of disapproval that greeted everything after the 6th symphony, when the entire music world seemed to think RVW had gone on for too long. I knowthey were wrong now but it was a widely held view of people who should have known better. I was brain washed by my betters.

[Ferretfancy]

salymap,
I'm sorry to hear about your tinnitus, I now know how maddening it can be. My problem began after a hearing aid trial. I returned the aids, but have now developed acute sensitivity, so that everything sounds strident. It does seem to be improving a little, so I risked listening to the RVW 9th. I understand what you mean about being brain washed. The critics were pretty sniffy about the 8th symphony as well, saying it was too light, but I was lucky enough to go to the first London performance, and loved it.
Elsewhere there has been some comments on the Walton Cello Concerto, and he came in for the same sniping, didn't he?

[salymap]

Ferretfancy That is a little worrying. I have asked for a hearing test at my local Hospital, but sincerely hope it doesn't make things worse.
I can hear best at the moment on little FM mono radios where chamber music or solo instruments are quite clear usually. Bigger stereo orchestral music is soon swamped in a swishing, rushing noise and has to be turned off.Is tinnitus connected to high blood pressure, do you know?

And re your remark about Walton, he hardly ever seemed to please the critics in his later years. Am I the only person who saw the first or second performance of Troilus and Cressida and actually enjoyed it,for all its supposed faults.

[Barbirollians]

I have stopped buying BBc Music magazine after its recent Gramophone like dumbing down . Has it recovered itself ?

[Chris Newman]

You will be missing some very good recordings. This month we had a superb live Prom RVW and Parry recording with Andrew Davis and a couple of months back Donald Runnicles very fine Mahler 8 from the Edinborough Festival. It is worth the subscription price for those alone (well five or six a year are really good value).

[Bryn]

Does anyone actually by it for the printed matter that accompanies the CD? I certainly don't.

[Roehre]

Does anyone actually buy it for the printed matter that accompanies the CD? I certainly don't.

I don't either

[salymap]

i find the Events of the Month and lists of new recordings interesting. I then pass the mag to a relative why often buys CDs through the quick MM ordering service. For about £3 a month, with the chance of a good CD I find it worth while.