BaL 1.06.19 - Mendelssohn: Symphony no. 4 "Italian"

[LeMartinPecheur]

I wonder why the Wallberg was mentioned as it does not appear to be available even as a download?

It wasn't mentioned: I mentioned it above in #10 as my very first purchase. "Guilty, your honour!" (Sorry, deep in Billy Budd at present)

Apologies to all if I've chuntered too much about it. This is the first time I've followed up a BaL with a serious comparative listen to what's on my shelves. Usually mean to, but never get a round tuit

[HighlandDougie]

Is this another sign of the future of the programme?

It now seems to have established itself as the pattern for the future. Not a good thing, in my view, but we are where we are. Sic transit gloria mundi and all that. As to this morning's BaL recommendation, it's an SACD to which I listen quite often so I am biased in its favour but a very sound choice - no-one listening to it would go away unhappy.

[cloughie]

It wasn't mentioned: I mentioned it above in #10 as my very first purchase. "Guilty, your honour!" (Sorry, deep in Billy Budd at present)

Apologies to all if I've chuntered too much about it. This is the first time I've followed up a BaL with a serious comparative listen to what's on my shelves. Usually mean to, but never get a round tuit

I should have read it more thoroughly - I remember the LP - one of the HMV Concert Classics S/XLP 20037. Many really good issues on that label - interesting that SXLP 200.. series were all recordings in their first issue cf S/XLP 300.. series which were reissues.
l

[pastoralguy]

Not just a twofer but a very short 'short list' was all that was discussed. And no explanation of how the short list was arrived at apart saying that earlier recordings were discounted as this piece requires modern, high quality sound. Reminds me of the infamous Beethoven Violin Concerto review when only a short list was considered. Is this another sign of the future of the programme?

It would probably have taken 45 minutes to read out the names of all the violinists who had recorded the Beethoven Violin Concerto!

[Alison]

I heard very little this morning which improved upon my beloved Sinopoli, a very spontaneous sounding studio version.
All the orchestral strands seem so well balanced, beautifully joyous winds, brass very much there, not needing to ‘cut through’, strings that really sing and of course the peerless timps. A perfectly judged ending for good measure.

Yes, (iii) comes over as ponderous and drawn out to the modern ear but I’m still pretty captivated by the timbral magnificence of it all, a tension in the music making regardless of speed.

Despite one or two idiosyncrasies a lovely performance that has the virtue of not trying too hard!

[LeMartinPecheur]

I should have read it more thoroughly - I remember the LP - one of the HMV Concert Classics S/XLP 20037. Many really good issues on that label - interesting that SXLP 200.. series were all recordings in their first issue cf S/XLP 300.. series which were reissues.
l

Thanks for the info on the series numbers cloughie. Have had a look down the Discogs (complete?) series listing and quite a few 200- series discs ring bells, though I didn't own many. Guess the real stand-out one is Colin Davis's Beethoven 7.

One small point: the three discs of Edith Farnardi's Annees de Pelerinage, SXLP 20097, 98 and 100, I think these were licensed from Westminster rather than new recordings. (I've owned the first two, bought s/h, one from the West Somerset Steam Railway's stall on Minehead station But both alas have proved too graunchy for a proper place on the LMP shelves)

[LeMartinPecheur]

Further to mal's #76, another 'off the board' recommendation. 1001 Classical Recordings To Hear Before You Die (2007) goes for PO/ Cantelli on Testament: "Cantelli's orchestra is polished to a gleam, but best of all is that the excitement and enthusiasm never fail from start to finish."

[cloughie]

Thanks for the info on the series numbers cloughie. Have had a look down the Discogs (complete?) series listing and quite a few 200- series discs ring bells, though I didn't own many. Guess the real stand-out one is Colin Davis's Beethoven 7.

One small point: the three discs of Edith Farnardi's Annees de Pelerinage, SXLP 20097, 98 and 100, I think these were licensed from Westminster rather than new recordings. (I've owned the first two, bought s/h, one from the West Somerset Steam Railway's stall on Minehead station But both alas have proved too graunchy for a proper place on the LMP shelves)

Yes I think maybe some of the Westminster recordings were new to EMI rather than never issued before EMI produced recordings - for me two standout recordings were Kletzki’s Scheherazade and Tchaik 6.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Firstly, can anyone help with the orchestra? I'd guess it's a reduced-strength Philharmonia as the strings are far less dominant (sc. overwhelming) than in the DG Abbado and all the better for that!

The LPO apparently:

https://www.discogs.com/artist/1653520-The-Philharmonic-Promenade-Orchestra-Of-London

[BBMmk2]

I’m glad Ed Gardner won the accolade yesterday. I didn’t hear this , so I might listen to the podcast.

[cloughie]

The LPO apparently:

https://www.discogs.com/artist/16535...stra-Of-London

Maybe or maybe it is Philharmonia - your link is to the Philharmonic Promenade Orchestra not the Philharmonia Promenade Orchestra

https://www.discogs.com/artist/1642557-Philharmonia-Promenade-Orchestra

I guess that certain jobbing orchestral musicians turned out in both.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Maybe or maybe it is Philharmonia - your link is to the Philharmonic Promenade Orchestra not the Philharmonia Promenade Orchestra

https://www.discogs.com/artist/1642557-Philharmonia-Promenade-Orchestra

I guess that certain jobbing orchestral musicians turned out in both.

Oh - well spotted, cloughie! And on the very next page:

https://www.discogs.com/artist/1642557-Philharmonia-Promenade-Orchestra

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

... and, lo and behold! - it was that very Wallberg recording that was my first - and for many years, the only - version of the work I ever owned, but in its MfP (10p cheaper than CfP LPs) incarnation, in which the orchestra was given its "proper" title:




I haven't heard it in ... well, must be around 30 years, but I have very fond memories of the performance, which was often played in my teens. (And the same goes for the Schubert coupling.)

[cloughie]

Oh - well spotted, cloughie! And on the very next page:

https://www.discogs.com/artist/1642557-Philharmonia-Promenade-Orchestra

...and Henry Krips had a more famous conductor brother.

There are I think other orchestras with recording aliases the London Festival Orchestra which was set up as a Decca studio sessions orchestra was largely based on the RPO and The New Symphony Orchestra of London on the LSO. The Reader’s Digest recording roster featured many of these orchestras including the National Philharmonic Orchestra and when it was linked to RCA who were in turn under the Decca umbrella in the 50s and early 60s also featured the RCA Victor Symphony Orchestra, which mind bogglingly could have been any of the London Orchestras or could have been an American orchestra, such as NYPO or Philadelphia. Stokowski used a number of titles for the orchestras he used, including just Orchestra! A fascinating subject but in the end it is the music and sound they produce that matters!

[gurnemanz]

Not just a twofer but a very short 'short list' was all that was discussed. And no explanation of how the short list was arrived at apart saying that earlier recordings were discounted as this piece requires modern, high quality sound. Reminds me of the infamous Beethoven Violin Concerto review when only a short list was considered. Is this another sign of the future of the programme?

Yes. It is somewhat unsatisfactory when you don't know exactly what you are listening to. I assume that under the twofer regime the main reviewer makes a shortlist which he or she then passes to Andrew for him to listen to and chip in about and more or less go along with. As you say, with the Italian it was not made clear by which criteria the shortlist was arrived at or how many of the available recordings had actually been considered. If the main reviewer has done much more intensive spadework listening than Andrew as interlocutor, then the ensuing dialogue is not a discussion between equals but more like a rubber-stamping of what has been agreed in advance.

That not one of the many recordings which I have enjoyed over the last 50 years (or a new favourite from Germany - Münchener Kammerorchester with Alexander Liebreich ) was even mentioned is obviously not really a pertinent criticism, but whatever the undoubted virtues of the winner and accompanying comments on several other versions, it was, due to its limited scope, for me a slightly disappointing and frustrating listen.