BaL 8.10.16 - Elgar: Falstaff, Symphonic Study

[Barbirollians]

This BAL has come round quite quickly compared to some works last done in 2005 David Lloyd Jones won with Andrew Davis as runner up .

[EnemyoftheStoat]

Nice to hear it played by a great Dutch orchestra, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam under Colin Davis ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H41DlTA8bMY

Presumably the same performance (1970) as in the big RCO box - which I have but haven't yet got to this recording. So, a mini-BAL coming up - CO/Davis vs BBCSO/Davis vs CBSO/Rattle.

[BBMmk2]

I have A. Davis, Barbirolli and Elder. I do rather like Barbirolli, here.

[EdgeleyRob]

I have a few of those,including Handley (Classics for Pleasure).
I also have NYO of Great Britain/Christopher Seaman,but I can't seem to find it,I'll have a look around later

Found it,well the cd and jewel case,but not the booklet.
It's a rather good performance
Presumably NLA

[Tony Halstead]

Found it,well the cd and jewel case,but not the booklet.
It's a rather good performance
Presumably NLA

I am going to try to get that CD or even LP.
I am a great fan and supporter of Christopher Seaman, a wonderful but woefully neglected ( in the UK) conductor.
I had the great pleasure to play for him in the BBCSSO during 1968-1970.

[pastoralguy]

I am going to try to get that CD or even LP.
I am a great fan and supporter of Christopher Seaman, a wonderful but woefully neglected ( in the UK) conductor.
I had the great pleasure to play for him in the BBCSSO during 1968-1970.

The very first concert I ever went to in the Usher Hall in June 1977 was an all Tchaikovsky concert conducted by Christopher Seaman. I was very taken by his red hair!

My first violin teacher, who was a player in the SNO, told me he was very pleasant to work with and he was very good at keeping the same tempi in performance that he had established in rehearsals.

I remember being very close to him in the audience in the Kelvin Hall in Glasgow when he conducted Tchaikovsky 5. The fiddles were starting to get carried away and he turned to them and pointed to the wind section which had the effect of sorting the balance out very quickly. I've seen conductors deal with that situation in very different ways but his was the nicest.

[Barbirollians]

Sorry to hear the Handley is deleted it was my first recording but I agree that Barbirolli is the recording to have albeit I should not wish to be without Elgar's own recording .

[Once Was 4]

The very first concert I ever went to in the Usher Hall in June 1977 was an all Tchaikovsky concert conducted by Christopher Seaman. I was very taken by his red hair!

My first violin teacher, who was a player in the SNO, told me he was very pleasant to work with and he was very good at keeping the same tempi in performance that he had established in rehearsals.

I remember being very close to him in the audience in the Kelvin Hall in Glasgow when he conducted Tchaikovsky 5. The fiddles were starting to get carried away and he turned to them and pointed to the wind section which had the effect of sorting the balance out very quickly. I've seen conductors deal with that situation in very different ways but his was the nicest.

Christopher Seaman must be one of the nicest men to wave a stick at an orchestra. I remember when he was in charge of the Northern Sinfonia in Newcastle. A colleague and myself were booked to play the very exposed 3rd and 4th horn parts in a studio 'rehearse record' for the BBC of Mozart's 25th Symphony (the 'Little G minor'). We were booked to start at 10.00, left Leeds in good time, and were ahead of our schedule until we reached the Redheugh Bridge where we got totally snarled up in traffic which was gridlocked for the best part of two hours due to an incident. Hot and bothered we entered the studio well after the time that the first movement of the symphony should have been 'in the can'. Mr Seaman had just recorded another item on the programme and, before we could apologise, he called out "do not worry gentlemen, we know about the Redheugh Bridge, do you want to play or would you rather get a drink first?" This kind of incident has led to tantrums from conductors - and ill feeling from players in return - so many times and explains why professional players get cynical. Mr Seaman sized up the situation, knew that it was not our fault and put us at our ease. That's the way to do it!

[gradus]

There's also a 1945 broadcast of the work played by the Columbia Broadcasting Symphony, conducted by Bernard Herrmann. He's better known these days for his scores for Orson Welles and Alfred Hitchcock movies but during his time as chief conductor of the CBS Orchestra he championed quite a lot of British music. This concert also included the first US broadcast of RVW's Oboe Concerto with Mitchell Miller as soloist. Still, I doubt if this 'Pristine Audio' CD will get any mention on BAL, no more than it did in the list above, even though critic Lewis Foreman described it as "a superb historical discovery in such good sound" ...

https://www.pristineclassical.com/pasc202.html

Gosh is that the Mitch Miller of Singalong fame? Talented chap and I'd love to hear the discs, let's hope the CD Review editor/presenter occasionally scan these boards and take the review hint. Such an unusual and unexpected disc.

[silvestrione]

I have a 15-page booklet Falstaff by Edward Elgar - Analytical Essay by the Composer, pub. Novello, "Reprinted from the Musical Times of September, 1913" with 15 labelled musical examples. Judging by Amazon UK listings it seems to be no longer in print.

Silvestrione, presumably he isn't one of those who "got some bits wrong"??
.

No, if you look back, I was suggesting the opposite: Tovey (Essays in Musical Analysis Vol IV) does a very convincing account of the music and what's going on, but in footnotes he reveals he'd discovered he'd got it wrong once that explanation from the composer came out.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I have a 15-page booklet Falstaff by Edward Elgar - Analytical Essay by the Composer, pub. Novello, "Reprinted from the Musical Times of September, 1913" with 15 labelled musical examples. Judging by Amazon UK listings it seems to be no longer in print.

Possibly the only way to obtain this essay by honest means (other than picking one up on eBay) is to buy the Falstaff/Polonia volume of the Elgar Complete Edition.

http://www.elgar.org/9vol33.htm

But it will cost you an arm and a leg.

[vinteuil]

... or for a tenner (plus p&p) -

http://www.abebooks.co.uk/servlet/SearchResults?an=Edward+Elgar&sts=t&tn=analytical+essay

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Ah, that's more like it.

[Pabmusic]

Possibly the only way to obtain this essay by honest means (other than picking one up on eBay) is to buy the Falstaff/Polonia volume of the Elgar Complete Edition.

http://www.elgar.org/9vol33.htm

But it will cost you an arm and a leg.

Or you can get the score plus Elgar's essay and an introduction by someone called Brookes from Musikproduktion Hoeflich of Munich. I can't get their website at the moment.

Here it is: https://repertoire-explorer.musikmph...gue-list-view/ Score no. 621.

[Alain Maréchal]

Gosh is that the Mitch Miller of Singalong fame? Talented chap and I'd love to hear the discs, let's hope the CD Review editor/presenter occasionally scan these boards and take the review hint. Such an unusual and unexpected disc.

Yes, the same. He recorded concertos by Vaughan Williams, Mozart, Bachs (plural), Cimarosa, and played cor anglais on a Stokowski "Swan of Tuolema".