Recordings that did it for me

[Dave2002]

umslopogaas

Those Honnegger Supraphon LPs were great. I should still have 2/3 somewhere in a box.

I've been thinking a bit about this for myself. My first LPs were a bit of a disaster - one was of the New World Symphony on a label called Gala, but there was something wrong with the disc and we took it back to the shop to be replaced by Grieg Peer Gynt and Bizet L'Arlesienne conducted by Ormandy. Mono - but very good - still got that one.

A couple which really got to me were Oistrakh playing Mendelssohn Violin Concerto - again Ormandy, and one of Dvorak's Cello Concerto on Telefunken. One of these certainly wasn't mine, and I've recently tried to find out which of the versions available at the time (around 1960 maybe) the Cello Concerto might have been. I did get the Violin Concerto though - but I might have heard another copy first. It just amazed me that anyone could play so many notes - I think particularly in the 2nd movement.

Another couple of early LPs were Mozart 40 and Brahms 1 on RCA with Fjelstad and Odd-Grunner-Hegge! [Never heard of them, you'll say!]. Konwitschny's Beethoven 7 came soon after.

Later on I particularly liked Bruno Walter's Dvorak 8th, and some Supraphon LPs of Janacek, including the Glagolitic Mass and the Sinfonietta, and also Brahms Double Concerto with Suk and Navarra, and Brahms Piano Conc. 1 with Curzon and Szell.

Things just went on from there ...... I was going to concerts in parallel - initially string quartets, with the occasional orchestral concert, but I'm afraid I did start to go to perhaps at least one orchestral concert a week if I could from the age of 12.

[hackneyvi]

[QUOTE=umslopogaas;60739]Honegger symphs 2/3, and 5/Pastorale d'Ete are two I still have.

Those Honnegger Supraphon LPs were great. I should still have 2/3 somewhere in a box.

That Honegger second with the trumpet is an important piece for me though my encounter was, I think, through Karajan. It's almost a mirror of the Tippett Double Concerto, especially in the finale, and showed me that something with a more obscure atmosphere of struggle could reward.

[umslopogaas]

Dave2002 post 16. The early 1960s Telefunken recording of Dvorak's cello concerto is by Ludwig Hoelscher and the Hamburg PO under Joseph Keilberth (SMA 9), the record is dated 1959. And not heard of Odd Gruner-Hegge? Oh yes I have, I have that very record of Brahms first, by the Oslo Philharmonic: its on RCA Camden, SND-5013. Both quite collectible items these days.

[remdataram]

It's really fascinating to read everyone's comments.

There are some pieces I don't know that I'll now investigate - one of the great values of the MB!

[Chris Newman]

umslopogas,
Ah, I remember the Reader's Digest Festival of Light Classical Music. 12 LPs. My mum got given it for Christmas though I played it most. That had some gems. Sir Adrian Boult, Massimo Freccia, Sir Alexander Gibson, René Leibowitz and several others and an incredible array of music, not all light either (Wagner, Brahms and Liszt). I recall that after hearing the overture to Hansel & Gretel and a showing of the Sadler's Well production on Christmas Day TV I was tempted to save up for the HMV (now CfP) recording of that production. Then an uncle bought me a subscription for a couple of years with World Record Club. The following Christmas I was given two MfP LPs of La Boheme with Gigli and Albenese. I soon had the opera bug.

And for a birthday I was given a Rolling Stones Album. Not really my cup of tea (I liked the Mersey Sound ... I must have been a wimp!) so with a friend I swapped it for a Vox Box of Schonberg's Gurrelieder (Rene Leibowitz) and Szymon Goldberg and the Bach Brandenbergs. I did well out of that transaction.

[Dave2002]

Dave2002 post 16. The early 1960s Telefunken recording of Dvorak's cello concerto is by Ludwig Hoelscher and the Hamburg PO under Joseph Keilberth (SMA 9), the record is dated 1959. And not heard of Odd Gruner-Hegge? Oh yes I have, I have that very record of Brahms first, by the Oslo Philharmonic: its on RCA Camden, SND-5013. Both quite collectible items these days.

umslopogaas

Amazed that anyone else still has those RCA Camden discs. The OGH Brahms was/is yellow, while the Fjelstad Mozart/Mendlssohn LP is reddish. As I recall, the covers actually claimed to be coated/covered with some "fancy" transparent covering material. I don't think they were great LPs, but they weren't terrible either, and I enjoyed them at the time. I need to check that Telefunken Dvorak - I got a CD of what may be that performance a few years ago, but then I wondered if I'd got the right one.

[gurnemanz]

umslopogas,

And for a birthday I was given a Rolling Stones Album.

Nostalgia corner: My first LP was the first Stones' album in 1964, bought with paper round money. As far as I remember, it cost 14/9 (about 75p). I still have it - a bit warped, grooves worn out and sleeve mostly disintegrated.