Boyce Symphonies on CD

[LaurieWatt]

That is the one to have

Thank you, Richard - and again, everybody else. I have put in my order to Amazon and will report!

[Tony Halstead]

That is the one to have

No it isn't IMHO... the tempos are mostly rather sluggish compared with Hogwood, the 'interpretations' are verging on 'romantic' and the orchestral textures are - for an HIPP band - thick. There is also the liability of the DGG 'Archiv' typical recording technique in which they record so dryishly close up that the potentially lovely acoustic of St John's Smith Square is pretty well negated, and then they add on their ghastly artificial reverberation.
My recommendation would be the Hogwood version which although it uses a bigger string section ( and 'baroque horns' not 'hand horns' in #4) sounds brighter and clearer.

[LaurieWatt]

No it isn't IMHO... the tempos are mostly rather sluggish compared with Hogwood, the 'interpretations' are verging on 'romantic' and the orchestral textures are - for an HIPP band - thick. There is also the liability of the DGG 'Archiv' typical recording technique in which they record so dryishly close up that the potentially lovely acoustic of St John's Smith Square is pretty well negated, and then they add on their ghastly artificial reverberation.
My recommendation would be the Hogwood version which although it uses a bigger string section ( and 'baroque horns' not 'hand horns' in #4) sounds brighter and clearer.

Oh dear, I will clearly have to have that one as well!
Thank you, Tony!
LW

[MickyD]

I'm in agreement with Tony...but I am biased because I love everything that Hogwood has ever done!

[Barbirollians]

Interesting - listening to Pinnock’s version this morning again I find them very enjoyable but there is perhaps less zip than in many other EC recordings of the time.

I shall now have to investigate the Hogwood. Are there not any more modern recordings of note ?

[Mal]

Capriccio released a remastered Marriner in 2017 ... I prefer it to Pinnock and other HIPP performances.

https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/8256998--boyce-symphonies-nos-1-8-op-2

[Mal]

No [Pinnock isn't the one] IMHO... the tempos are mostly rather sluggish compared with Hogwood, the 'interpretations' are verging on 'romantic' and the orchestral textures are - for an HIPP band - thick. There is also the liability of the DGG 'Archiv' typical recording technique in which they record so dryishly close up that the potentially lovely acoustic of St John's Smith Square is pretty well negated, and then they add on their ghastly artificial reverberation.

I totally agree. I bought into the hype, about a decade ago, and plumped for Pinnock without pre-sampling. Then spent a decade trying to like it... failed. Thanks for the insight into "DGG 'Archiv' typical recording technique". The dry sound is the biggest flaw for me. I did some serious sampling before replacing it, preferring several takes to Pinnock, including Hogwood, but chose Marriner in the end.

[Cockney Sparrow]

I've been listening to Hogwood (have to say, on Naxos Music Library (#16 : http://www.for3.org/forums/showthrea...-library/page2. )
I'm not in the HIPP camp, don't have strong views but I think the Hogwood performances are a joy. Having heard them (and they are also available on Google Play so probably also Spotify etc) I would buy the CD if I really thought I wanted the booklet. (Having said that, I have them on CD somewhere - which might well be Marriner).

[Pulcinella]

Faerber (Carlton Classics) and Marriner (Decca Serenata) here.
I heard my first Boyce symphony (and it was number 1) in Nottingham, in 1969–1970, my pre-university apprenticeship year, in a concert conducted by Horenstein that I went to to hear Janet Baker singing Mahler.
Loved it, and bought the Turnabout LP (and the pocket score) as a consequence.
I helped introduce them to the college orchestra and subsequently to a chamber orchestra where I was doing my graduate studies.
Delightful works!

[Barbirollians]

Wasn’t there a Menuhin recording on EMI ?

[Cockney Sparrow]

On the river people: Menuhin - Classics for Pleasure - made it to CD !

[Dave2002]

No it isn't IMHO... the tempos are mostly rather sluggish compared with Hogwood, the 'interpretations' are verging on 'romantic' and the orchestral textures are - for an HIPP band - thick. There is also the liability of the DGG 'Archiv' typical recording technique in which they record so dryishly close up that the potentially lovely acoustic of St John's Smith Square is pretty well negated, and then they add on their ghastly artificial reverberation.
My recommendation would be the Hogwood version which although it uses a bigger string section ( and 'baroque horns' not 'hand horns' in #4) sounds brighter and clearer.

Thanks for this Tony. Are there many recordings which have such added artificial reverb? DGG or others?

[Pulcinella]

More versions of the full set available than I had realised:

https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/works/39413--boyce-symphonies-nos-1-8-op-2/browse?size=10&view=large

Though why Presto are in competition with themselves by releasing Presto CDs of both incarnations (British Music Collection and L'Oiseau Lyre) of the AAM/Hogwood recording at different prices is anyone's guess.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

On the river people: Menuhin - Classics for Pleasure - made it to CD !

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Eight-Symphonies-Menuhin-William-Boyce/dp/B0002AY9EG

I don't know these pieces at all - I think I last heard [some of] them when I was a teenager, and wasn't very engaged. I should give them another, proper listen - but so much other Music, so little time.

[Richard Barrett]

I did indeed! The Pinnock is excellent and was, I think, the first HIP version. But he takes artistic licence and puts in flutes in the slow movement of Symphony No.1 which I understand were never there. A few years later, Hogwood did another admirable version (minus flutes!)

I hear flutes in Hogwood's recording of that movement.