Interview with Edward Greenfield

[Guest]

Edward Greenfield was the one-time doyen of classical music critics, particularly well-known from the concert reviews and his recorded music reviewing at The Guardian, Gramophone and co-founder-editor of the long-standing vade mecum of the world of recorded classical music, The Penguin Guide. He was also one of the stalwarts of John Lade's Record Review on Radio 3, precursor of today's CD Review, and he also broadcast on BBC World Service.

Now long-retired and in his mid-80s, this film is a short glimpse into his long life and work, his home in the Spitalfields area not far from Liverpool Street and his astonishing collection of 40,000 LPs and even more CDs.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2O4JFA7LSq8

[Alison]

Thanks 51, very interesting.

His BaL's are much missed. Always covered lots of versions with a lack of self awareness that now seems old fashioned.

[amateur51]

Thanks 51, very interesting.

His BaL's are much missed. Always covered lots of versions with a lack of self awareness that now seems old fashioned.

As he says, he took a postive approach to reviewing recording and performance which meant rthat artists were not as afraid of him as a critic, treating him more as a friend. You just had to learn to calibrate his enthusiasm and bonhomie.

[JFLL]

Thanks, Ams, nice to see 'Mr Bonhomie' still flourishing. But what is the point of that soundtrack all through the interview?

[Petrushka]

I remember attending a pre-concert talk on Elgar's 2nd Symphony that EG gave in one of those rooms at the Royal Festival Hall prior to a performance by Bernard Haitink and the Philharmonia in, I think, 1984. The music examples he played were set at an incredibly loud volume setting, much louder than any domestic set up would be and I did idly wonder if his reviews were based on listening at such an ear-blasting level.

Alison might be interested to know that I casually wandered in to Haitink's rehearsal that morning and took one or two photographs which I still have somewhere. I'm not sure I'd get away with all this so easily nowadays!

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Thanks, Ams, nice to see 'Mr Bonhomie' still flourishing. But what is the point of that soundtrack all through the interview?

Yes, I wondered that!

Lovely man (EG, I mean - though, no doubt, JFLL too!) whose enthusiasm was genuinely infectious. The only trouble with his reviews is that he made you want to buy everything a bit like these Messageboards! There was a period in the early '80s when every new recording of the Saint-Saens Organ Symphony was "the best yet"!

[Madame Suggia]

Watched it for a while waiting to see whether he'd try the helmet on.

Interesting guy with a particularly well stocked booze corner.

[mercia]

I wonder if he has plans for that vast record collection