Wagner Siegfried Idyll

[Barbirollians]

Classic FM has its uses ! Last night shortly before going to bed Radio 3 was indulging itself with Hear and Now and I didn't want to listen to the noise being played on that . As I retuned the Siegfried Idyll started up . It struck me - all 18 minutes of it (a piece , the length of which would surely befuddle most of Roger Wright's hoped for listeners) as a particularly beautiful and tender performance . It turned out to be Haitink and the RCO and I promptly downloaded it for 89p .

Playing it again today I am struck in particular by the lovely Cgebouw strings . It joins the Cantelli and Walter in my top three . What is your favourite performance of the work ?

[cloughie]

Classic FM has its uses ! Last night shortly before going to bed Radio 3 was indulging itself with Hear and Now and I didn't want to listen to the noise being played on that . As I retuned the Siegfried Idyll started up . It struck me - all 18 minutes of it (a piece , the length of which would surely befuddle most of Roger Wright's hoped for listeners) as a particularly beautiful and tender performance . It turned out to be Haitink and the RCO and I promptly downloaded it for 89p .

Playing it again today I am struck in particular by the lovely Cgebouw strings . It joins the Cantelli and Walter in my top three . What is your favourite performance of the work ?

Solti for the Chamber version, Colin Davis and the Sinfonia of London for the Full Orchestral version. I also like Klemperer and Walter!

[pastoralguy]

Solti for the Chamber version, Colin Davis and the Sinfonia of London for the Full Orchestral version. I also like Klemperer and Walter!

Herbie von K and his band for me on this one. The Berlin Phil's playing is simply stunning.

[BBMmk2]

I have this somewhere! I think I have Solti and HvK

[Beef Oven!]

Classic FM has its uses ! Last night shortly before going to bed Radio 3 was indulging itself with Hear and Now and I didn't want to listen to the noise being played on that . As I retuned the Siegfried Idyll started up ...................

Why listen to modern music when there is so much superior music to listen to from the 1800s? Happily, with so many options like instant downloads, it's easy to shun modern music and stick with the stuff we like.

Classic FM is always going to be a better option if Radio is, to borrow your words, going to indulge itself with the stuff they put out on Hear and Now (as you've said before, people don't actually like that sort of stuff, they only pretend to like it to try to look fashionable and cool).

We are lucky to have forumites like you to keep us from straying

[Roehre]

I certainly would have preferred to stick to H & N , but IF it has got to be the Siegfried Idyll, my version would be the piece with its originally 13 instruments as performed by Ensemble 13 on (then) EMI/DHM (a 1979 LP that is)

[Bryn]

I suppose I must have a recording of this trite little birthday schmalz somewhere. I certainly used to have the SoL/Davis LP (though SI was the least played 'track'). Best version I know is this.

[Hmm. I find I have Monteux in one of the RCO Radio Legacy boxes (well they were in boxes, but those boxes were of far to flimsy construction for practical use (rather than as shelf ornaments), so the discs and accompaying books are now housed in a suitably sized lidded plastic tub from Poundland. There was even room for the Haitink Mahler Kerstmatinees DVDs and RCO Mahler Blu-rays boxed sets as a combined divider between the two anthology volumes' CDs).]

[makropulos]

Classic FM has its uses ! Last night shortly before going to bed Radio 3 was indulging itself with Hear and Now and I didn't want to listen to the noise being played on that . As I retuned the Siegfried Idyll started up . It struck me - all 18 minutes of it (a piece , the length of which would surely befuddle most of Roger Wright's hoped for listeners) as a particularly beautiful and tender performance . It turned out to be Haitink and the RCO and I promptly downloaded it for 89p .

Playing it again today I am struck in particular by the lovely Cgebouw strings . It joins the Cantelli and Walter in my top three . What is your favourite performance of the work ?

Klemperer and Solti - and yes - certainly Bruno Walter too - but with him the question is which recording? There are something like a dozen Bruno Walter performances, including the ones below (full details in Erik Ryding's discography) - of which my own favourites are the NYPhil 1953 recording, and the late Columbia SO one with the rehearsal. But it's clear this was a piece he performed at every opportunity.

Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, December 3–5, 1924
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, November 19, 1926
British Symphony Orchestra, May 16, 1930
Vienna Philharmonic, June 19, 1935
NBC Symphony Orchestra, April 8, 1939 (live)
Boston Symphony, March 18, 1947 (live)
Los Angeles Standard Symphony Orchestra, June 19, 1949 (live)
New York Philharmonic, January 5, 1953
Los Angeles Philharmonic, July 14, 1953 (live)
Orchestre National de la R. T. F., May 5, 1955 (live)
New York Philharmonic, February 10, 1957 (live)
Columbia Symphony Orchestra, February 27, 1959 (with rehearsal sequence)

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Fellow Forumistas have paid as much attention to Barbie's OP as he has to H&N. He asks "which is your favourite performance of the work", and so far recordings have been cited only. My favourite performance (purely for sentimental reasons) was the one I conducted with a group of friends in Leeds on 10th February, 1980. I don't think I've heard it Live since.

[Barbirollians]

1 I was being facetious about Hear and Now - one of the problems with the programme is it being marooned late on a Saturday night - hardly the best time for challenging new music . I don't want to listen to it on a Saturday night just before going to bed !

2 Indeed , performance recorded or otherwise .

3 Makropoulos - very good point I was referring to the Columbia one with the rehearsal sequence

[DublinJimbo]

Klemperer's is the recording I most often return to.

[Black Swan]

Herbie von K and his band for me on this one. The Berlin Phil's playing is simply stunning.

HvK for me as well.

[Petrushka]

I find I've somehow accumulated rather a lot of versions of the Siegfried Idyll . Solti is my preferred choice for the 13 instrument version. I played this on Christmas morning 1970 exactly 100 years after that first performance and it was the first of many anniversary celebrations of very many pieces ever since.

Barbirollians has already chosen my preferred orchestral version: Haitink and the Concertgebouw in a really lovely recording/performance. Beautiful strings, certainly, but listen out for the ravishing milky tone of the solo clarinet as well. The clarinet alone makes this version my first choice.

[Barbirollians]

I find I've somehow accumulated rather a lot of versions of the Siegfried Idyll . Solti is my preferred choice for the 13 instrument version. I played this on Christmas morning 1970 exactly 100 years after that first performance and it was the first of many anniversary celebrations of very many pieces ever since.

Barbirollians has already chosen my preferred orchestral version: Haitink and the Concertgebouw in a really lovely recording/performance. Beautiful strings, certainly, but listen out for the ravishing milky tone of the solo clarinet as well. The clarinet alone makes this version my first choice.

Very true about the clarinet playing and the solo horn too - Cantelli of course has the great advantage of Dennis Brain in his recording.

[akiralx]

Why listen to modern music when there is so much superior music to listen to from the 1800s? Happily, with so many options like instant downloads, it's easy to shun modern music and stick with the stuff we like.

Classic FM is always going to be a better option if Radio is, to borrow your words, going to indulge itself with the stuff they put out on Hear and Now (as you've said before, people don't actually like that sort of stuff, they only pretend to like it to try to look fashionable and cool).

Good job you weren't around in 1800 or we'd all still be listening to just Bach and Handel...

On the Idyll, I heard HvK's beautiful version the first time this week, from his 1970s recording box - at 19'40 one of the longer versions? I also like Jarvi's much faster version on Chandos SACD.