Ivan March RIP

[Barbirollians]

Gramophone’s site reports that he died last week aged 91 . I think Robert Layton is still alive if no longer reviewing . Two of the three Record Guide editors gone.

I did not always agree with him but I bought a lot of cheap and excellent records through cassette commentary and collectors corner .

RIP

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I always read his reviews with interest, though like Barbs I didn't always agree with him - he seemed to think cassettes were OK

[cloughie]

Through his reviews and guides he was a part of the history of my recorded music collecting.
RIP Ivan

[Stunsworth]

I always read his reviews with interest, though like Barbs I didn't always agree with him - he seemed to think cassettes were OK

I used to buy the Penguin guides religiously when they came out - starting with the thick green one from the mid 70s. I did buy, and still have, one of the cassette volumes - even though I only ever bought a handful of pre-recorded cassettes.

With the amount of Classical music now available to stream I think I ought to listen to some of the recommendations from the original volume I bought.

In any case I ought to thank March, Layton and Greenfield for helping to stimulate my interest in Classical music.

[Stanfordian]

I used to buy the Penguin guides religiously when they came out - starting with the thick green one from the mid 70s. I did buy, and still have, one of the cassette volumes - even though I only ever bought a handful of pre-recorded cassettes.

With the amount of Classical music now available to stream I think I ought to listen to some of the recommendations from the original volume I bought.

In any case I ought to thank March, Layton and Greenfield for helping to stimulate my interest in Classical music.

Yes, that trio stimulated my interest in Classical music too. Ivan March lived only a few miles away from me but I never knowingly met him or even saw him.

[jayne lee wilson]

I owe Ivan March a great deal - yes, Collectors Corner! Those reissue surveys on cassette and then bargain duo-CDs... that precious old-Gramophonian blend of enthusiasm and arcane knowledge....you'd page through the Gramophone eagerly to see what was just out, how much great music you might be able to afford that month...

So the old order slowly passes.... but for me, never forgotten...that Penguin Guide/Gramophone triumvirate could write most present-day reviewers off the page...

[Keraulophone]

When you got to know his tastes and enthusiasms, IM’s reviews in Gramophone were a reasonably sure guide, particularly with regard to sound quality. After moving far away from the wonderful free record libraries of my youth in the metropolis, I borrowed quite a few CDs from the Long Playing Record Library, founded by IM in 1954, who published the original Stereo Record Guide from 1960 to 1974, which later became the Penguin Guides. You could keep the ones you liked (priced according to how often they’d been loaned out) and send back the rest of the (IIRC) fortnightly bundle. It was a useful way to make new discoveries in music before the existence of Spotify.

Thank you, and R.I.P. Ivan.

[Parry1912]

I owe Ivan March a great deal - yes, Collectors Corner! Those reissue surveys on cassette and then bargain duo-CDs... that precious old-Gramophonian blend of enthusiasm and arcane knowledge....you'd page through the Gramophone eagerly to see what was just out, how much great music you might be able to afford that month...

So the old order slowly passes.... but for me, never forgotten...that Penguin Guide/Gramophone triumvirate could write most present-day reviewers off the page...

I quite agree.

[Richard Tarleton]

I owe Ivan March a great deal - yes, Collectors Corner! Those reissue surveys on cassette and then bargain duo-CDs... that precious old-Gramophonian blend of enthusiasm and arcane knowledge....you'd page through the Gramophone eagerly to see what was just out, how much great music you might be able to afford that month...

So the old order slowly passes.... but for me, never forgotten...that Penguin Guide/Gramophone triumvirate could write most present-day reviewers off the page...

Indeed - the basis of much of my record buying for many years

[LeMartinPecheur]

I always had the impression that IM was the 'lighter' of the three PG reviewers. Perhaps I picked this up from what he did for Gramophone? I'm not at all saying he was lightweight, just that he preferred the more standard, tonal repertoire blending into, ahem, light music. So probably not their top pick for the latest Birtwistle release?

No doubt someone here will tell me if I'm wrong...

[Cockney Sparrow]

Featured on "Last Word" Radio 4, as I write - Martin Cullingford being interviewed. Including a quote from his review of the Naxos Eine Alpensfonie.....

[Beef Oven!]

RIP. We owe him so much ........

When I knew classical music was for me, the PGs were never away from me as I grew my collection.

Remember, this was before the internet so IM RL & EG provided a huge, invaluable service.

Many a Saturday afternoon in the HMV or Virgin in Oxford Street I could be found in the lounging area consulting the customer copies of the PG on account of an interesting CD I'd spotted in the racks and wanted to know more about it.

IMHO, he never gave a bum steer.

[jayne lee wilson]

Yes, that excited rushing about between racks and guides...speed-reading, with a precious bunch of potential purchases in hand.... !

I always ended with that after any shopping trip into town... an hour's music-collecting therapy...

[Beef Oven!]

Yes, that excited rushing about between racks and guides...speed-reading, with a precious bunch of potential purchases in hand.... !

I always ended with that after any shopping trip into town... an hour's music-collecting therapy...

Exactly!

[Parry1912]

Sounds familiar