Recordings of the composer as performer

[Ariosto]

I posted before putting in the last sentence:
One composer whose recordings are almost all in excellent sound and which are stunningly good from a musical point of view - Britten. It helped that he was such a wonderful conductor and pianist, and I can't think of another composer who has made more consistently fine records of his own music.

I would agree entirely, and the Schubert duos with Richter, and his own songs with Pears are wonderful. And when I was a student I heard him live in the first public performance of his cello sonata with Rostropovich, only hours after they had recorded it (I was about 4 at the time... )

It may interest Mary Chambers that only about a week ago whilst on holiday I stood by the graves of Britten and Pears, and alongside was the grave of Imogen Holst. It was a pilgramage back to Aldeburgh and Snape where we attended a concert. (Unfortunately not music by Britten). I also saw the Britten/Pears house which was unfortunately closed and took photos of the outside and the garden. (Called the Red House).

[makropulos]

I would agree entirely, and the Schubert duos with Richter, and his own songs with Pears are wonderful. And when I was a student I heard him live in the first public performance of his cello sonata with Rostropovich, only hours after they had recorded it (I was about 4 at the time... ).

You lucky person! I really envy the four-year-old you that. But yes, Britten performing other composers is nearly always a delight and some of those BBC discs of Aldeburgh performances (Mahler 4, Tchaikovsky, Debussy - to say nothing of Mozart and Schubert) are revelatory. People seem to have mixed reactions to his Gerontius, but I find there's a lot to love in that too.

[umslopogaas]

Bartok and Joseph Szigeti play Bartok, Debussy and Beethoven. Recorded at the Library of Congress in Washington on April 13th 1940, only two days after had Bartok arrived in the US on a short visit; he returned to Hungary a month later, but soon went back to the States for good. This recording was issued in the US as a double LP by Vanguard and in the UK as two single LPs by Philips (all with the same cover design and sleeve notes, there must have been some link between those two companies, but I dont know what it was). Bartok and Szigeti ... that's quite a line-up!

[Ferretfancy]

The Library of Congress recording of Bartok's Contrasts should still be available on a Dutton CD ' Composers Play' CDBP9778, which includes Poulenc's Aubade, Falla in his Harpsichord Concerto and Francaix's Piano Concerto and Concertino. all excellent transfers.The same performance of Contrasts is also available on Naxos, with excerpts from Mikrocosmos, and Szigeti and the composer in his Rhapsody no.1 for Violin and Piano, Mark Obert- Thorn transfers Naxos 8.111343

[Ariosto]

You lucky person! I really envy the four-year-old you that. But yes, Britten performing other composers is nearly always a delight and some of those BBC discs of Aldeburgh performances (Mahler 4, Tchaikovsky, Debussy - to say nothing of Mozart and Schubert) are revelatory.

I have to admit to being about 20 at the time although I was doing a four year course at the RAM when it happened ...

It's one of those occasions that one never forgets the details. I remember Rostropovich played some unnacompanied Bach too, and when he jumped down from the (in those days quite high) platform in the Dukes Hall to speak to students, his heavyweight minders jumped down too!!

[french frank]

I cherish a cutting from the Radio Times with details of a Classic FM Evening Concert:

Mozart, Piano Concerto No 20 in D minor, K466
Clifford Curzon, ECO,
conducted by the Composer.

Unfortunately I missed the programme.

[Roslynmuse]

Yes, Poulenc is quite wonderful in his own music. My favourite of all his recordings is the first (1945) recording of "C" with Bernac which is sublime.

Absolutely! I have some LPs issued by the Pierre Bernac Society which includes this recording.

I've just remembered a Philips double CD set with Roussel accompanying Claire Croiza in some of his songs and (I think) conducting part of Le festin de l'araignee. There's a brief track of Roussel speaking too, which I have never seen issued elsewhere.

[makropulos]

Absolutely! I have some LPs issued by the Pierre Bernac Society which includes this recording.

I've just remembered a Philips double CD set with Roussel accompanying Claire Croiza in some of his songs and (I think) conducting part of Le festin de l'araignee. There's a brief track of Roussel speaking too, which I have never seen issued elsewhere.

Those Roussel recordings (very good they are too) are in the Composers in Person box as well - but without the spoken bit. Similarly the Florent Schmitt recordings (the slow movement of the Piano Quintet Op. 51 and Tragédie de Salomé), but not the little speech.

By the way, one Poulenc recording that I was thrilled to find reissued on an obscure label is the Sextet that he recorded with the Philadelphia Woodwind Quintet. I'd been looking for this for a long time and found it on Boston Records BR1061CD. (http://www.bostonrecords.com/servlet...rt-Cole/Detail) Well worth getting while it's still around!

[Don Petter]

I don't think anyone has yet mentioned Dohnanyi and Mompou, who have both recorded some of their own piano works (as well as, in the case of the former, works by Beethoven, Haydn and Schumann).

[Suffolkcoastal]

While we are on composers conducting their own works, I've a number rare off-air recordings on Roy Harris conducting his own works and Virgil Thomson conducting a couple of his works (something he did very rarely). There a number of discs of Hovhaness conducting his own works and of course we have plenty of Bernstein conducting Bernstein.

[makropulos]

I don't think anyone has yet mentioned Dohnanyi and Mompou, who have both recorded some of their own piano works (as well as, in the case of the former, works by Beethoven, Haydn and Schumann).

Among composers who were also pianists, there are also the recordings by Medtner.
Speaking of Russians, there are also the records of their own music by Prokofiev, Shostakovich, Glazunov, Khachaturian, Kabalevsky...et al (And Stravinsky of course).

[makropulos]

While we are on composers conducting their own works, I've a number rare off-air recordings on Roy Harris conducting his own works and Virgil Thomson conducting a couple of his works (something he did very rarely). There a number of discs of Hovhaness conducting his own works and of course we have plenty of Bernstein conducting Bernstein.

Thanks to the fabulous new Samuel Barber set on West Hill Radio Archives, we suddenly have a lot more live Barber performed by the composer too.

That's interesting about the Virgil Thomson performances - I don't think I've ever heard him conducting.

[Don Petter]

And there is the 1889 Brahms cylinder!

[Don Petter]

That's interesting about the Virgil Thomson performances - I don't think I've ever heard him conducting.

He's conducting on the 1947 recording of the abridged Four Saints in Three Acts, issued on a treasured RCA LP. (Which has been on CD, but nla?)

[Suffolkcoastal]

That's interesting about the Virgil Thomson performances - I don't think I've ever heard him conducting.[/QUOTE]

I'll check when I get home on monday Makropulos, but I believe Thomson is conducting the Boston Symphony Orchestra, one work is Sea Piece with Birds. I've also forgotten about Hanson conducting Hanson, interestingly he's almost 5 minutes quicker than the more recent Schwarz in his 4th Symphony a much more dramatic performance too.