BaL 14.12.24 - Wagner: Siegfried Idyll

[akiralx]

A very good version of what sounds like the 13 instrument original is by Thielemann, on a DG CD called Wagner At Wahnfried, coupled with the Wesendonck-Lieder, sung by Camilla Nylund.

[Barbirollians]

I don’t think - until buying this Solti or not recording I have ever sought out a CD of the Siegfried Idyll - yet I find I have Abbado,Boult,Haitink,Handley. Furtwangler ,Klemperer and Walter .

[smittims]

I didn't know Vernon Handley had recorded it. Another unexpected conductor was Neville Marriner, whose late-1960s Argo recording was coupled with Strauss' Metamorphosen. And an old HMV by Daniel Barenboim (one of his first recordings as a conductor, I think) has long disappeared, Oddly, it had a Schoenberg and Hindemith coupling. I wish I'd kept my copy.

[Pulcinella]

I didn't know Vernon Handley had recorded it. Another unexpected conductor was Neville Marriner, whose late-1960s Argo recording was coupled with Strauss' Metamorphosen. And an old HMV by Daniel Barenboim (one of his first recordings as a conductor, I think) has long disappeared, Oddly, it had a Schoenberg and Hindemith coupling. I wish I'd kept my copy.

The works on that Barenboim CD must have had different incarnations. I had an LP with the Bartok Music for SPC and Divertimento (ECO); the Divertimento reappeared on a Matrix (short-lived series) CD, c/w Verklärte Nacht and Trauermusik, which I have. The Music for SPC has not been released on CD afaik.

[smittims]

I had the two Bartoks on an Eminence LP in the 1980s. Good performances, not quite as good as Marriner's wonderful Argo disc with,among others, Roger Smalley on piano!

An unlikely conductor of the two Bartok works was Sir Adrian Boult, who did them both in the 1950s on a Westminster LP: It's on YouTube. Not,sadly , one of his best.

[mikealdren]

I had the two Bartoks on an Eminence LP in the 1980s. Good performances, not quite as good as Marriner's wonderful Argo disc with,among others, Roger Smalley on piano!

An unlikely conductor of the two Bartok works was Sir Adrian Boult, who did them both in the 1950s on a Westminster LP: It's on YouTube. Not,sadly , one of his best.

I bought the 1980 Marriner version on LP. I think it was the first digital recording I bought and I remember it being very good. The only CDs I have are Toscanini and Furtwangler so I'll be listening with interest.

[Barbirollians]

I didn't know Vernon Handley had recorded it. Another unexpected conductor was Neville Marriner, whose late-1960s Argo recording was coupled with Strauss' Metamorphosen. And an old HMV by Daniel Barenboim (one of his first recordings as a conductor, I think) has long disappeared, Oddly, it had a Schoenberg and Hindemith coupling. I wish I'd kept my copy.

One of those Tring RPO own label records from the 1990s. I cannot find the Gramophone review . I assume it must have been positive as I was rather reliant on them when buying CDs in those days .

[Barbirollians]

Listened to the Solti/Weller last night . Loved the sonorities of the original version but rather less subtly conducted compared to Haitink I felt .

[Barbirollians]

I am reminded that I also have Cantelli in his ICON box. I was mightily taken with it a post on 2012 on here recalls . Dennis Brain of course shining. Must dig that out.

[smittims]

Yes,the Cantelli, needless to say , is delecatble, with Tchaikovsky's Romeo on the other side of the original LP (ALP 1086)

[gradus]

I've never heard a performance of this piece that I didn't like, it seems to draw the best out of players , maybe because it isn't often programmed.

[smittims]

There was a time when it was on Radio 3 quite often (not that I minded as I love it). I recall a letter to Radio Times asking why this 'tedious setimental outpouring' was played every week! I think that was from what Ted Greenfield used to call an 'unenjoyer'.

[Petrushka]

I've never heard a performance of this piece that I didn't like, it seems to draw the best out of players , maybe because it isn't often programmed.

It's one of those pieces that doesn't easily fit into a typical concert programme being just short of 20 minutes. I've heard it twice live at the Proms: Haitink and the Concertgebouw in 1983 and Iona Brown and the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra in 1997.

As a bit of good programme planning I once heard Charles Groves and the RLPO perform it in a second half that was followed by Tchaikovsky's Francesca da Rimini.

[Barbirollians]

There was a time when it was on Radio 3 quite often (not that I minded as I love it). I recall a letter to Radio Times asking why this 'tedious setimental outpouring' was played every week! I think that was from what Ted Greenfield used to call an 'unenjoyer'.

Would surely be far too long for Breakfast and EC nowadays.

[Pulcinella]

The 'Solti' version appears on a recently released reissue of Deryck Cooke's An introduction to....

https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/9644992--wagner-an-introduction-to-der-ring-des-nibelungen

Both the Presto blurb and the Rob Cowan article in December 2024's Gramophone describe it as 'led by Walter Weller'.