Building a Library archive on YouTube

[Barbirollians]

A good shortlist, which I share. They all sit proudly on my shelf - or at least floor. Yet there are days when I'd happily throw any one of them across the room in frustration, too: for example Böhm (generally my favourite), when I'm feeling less tolerant than usual towards Windgassen.

Curiously, the only set which never provokes me is Reginald Goodall's. No specially "starry" quality to it, but no occasionally frustrating weakness either - and musically speaking (thinking of your awareness of the "history-changing masterpiece") as astonishing as any of the others.

RO suggests that Goodall's approach ill-suited his cast - i.e their singing could not handle the broadness of it - unlike Flagstad and gang could with Furtwangler.

[Barbirollians]

How curious voices from the abyss can be. Blyth had died in 2007, Steane in 2011 - yet here's Gramophone in 2015, perpetuating their debates as if both were still alive. Blyth in particular outlived himself in one, curious way: as an obituarist for The Guardian many of his pre-prepared articles were appearing for years afterwards. It was quite spooky.

I sometimes wonder whether he wrote his own (attr. Philip Reed) as it's very much in Blyth's style!

Steane was the better writer and critic, in part because of this lively fluidity of mind: he was always prepared to change his judgements, in the light of new insights and experiences, whether evaluating singers or recordings. And as the English teacher of generations of schoolboys, his oft-repeated line was "give reasons, boy!" A vital reminder which he never forgot himself, either.

There was an Alan Blyth obit of a musician in the Guardian I I think ) only a few months ago ! I cannot remember off the top of my head who it was .

Just checked it was Caballe but in October 2018. I am a bit shocked to find she died that long ago I thought it was last year.

[Master Jacques]

RO suggests that Goodall's approach ill-suited his cast - i.e their singing could not handle the broadness of it - unlike Flagstad and gang could with Furtwangler.

I respectfully suggest that RO's ears were reporting on his preconceptions rather than the reality. Jed Distler was surely right when he singled out (on Classics Today) the very reverse, as one extra-special merit of Goodall's Tristan:

"Goodall’s singers go with the unpressured flow rather than struggle against it."

Quite. L.E.Grey had studied it with the conductor for many moons, to achieve this, and John Mitchinson's breath control was legendary (it's something he passed on to many of his pupils, too). "Unpressured" is the right word: although perhaps RO was thinking of Philip Joll's Kurwenal, which marginally lets the side down. Otherwise it's the unforced musicality - with nobody rushing to get anywhere but simply inhabiting the moment - which makes the Goodall Tristan such a lovely change from more obviously "dramatic" readings. I say "simply", but goodness knows, that is so hard to achieve!

[Master Jacques]

There was an Alan Blyth obit of a musician in the Guardian I I think ) only a few months ago ! I cannot remember off the top of my head who it was .

Just checked it was Caballe but in October 2018. I am a bit shocked to find she died that long ago I thought it was last year.

Now that is shocking. If you'd asked me, I'd have said I was writing that up about six months ago. Oh Time, stand still!

[cmr_for3]

Can I just add my thanks to the finder of this YT archive. As a somewhat younger listener of BaL this is simply a treasure trove.

[Master Jacques]

Having now taken possession of both volumes of Building a Library paperbacks edited by John Lade, I'd simply like to thank those of you who recommended them. There's so much absorbing reading, some of it fascinating (Andrew Parrott on Dido and Aeneas, for example, bewailing the lack of a proper period instrument performance, decades before his own contribution to the discography) and some of it classic quality: Rodney Milnes on Carmen comes to mind, in my own line of business. Thank you!

It reinforces the point often made on the Forum, that the 1970s reviewers really did have it easy: most of them only have four or five available LP recordings to worry about, and their playlists rarely extended to even ten LPs from which examples could be taken. It puts the current "shortlist" controversy into perspective: the fact that our personal favourites aren't even mentioned these days, may only show how rich and diverse today's choices often are. There's no reason to get grumpy about it, or take it personally.

Yet the rules for a "performance to live with" still apply: nothing too outlandish or eccentric will do for a 'central' library choice.

[Darloboy]

Has any reviewer done two BaL’s on the same work?

Chris de Souza has done Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra twice in 1998 and 2011. He made Rattle his 1st choice in 98 and then made Britten (his historical choice in 98) his 1st choice in 2011

[Darloboy]

And Colin Lawson has done the Brahms Clarinet Quintet twice (1998 and 2011 again coincidentally). Also back in the mid-noughties, there was a summer season of 'BaL revisited' where the same reviewer would reconsider their earlier choice.

[Darloboy]

And David Fanning has done Nielsen 4 twice - in 2000 and 2012. So it's rare, but not unheard of.

[BBMmk2]

This looks likes a very good resource. Thank you Cali!

[jayne lee wilson]

And David Fanning has done Nielsen 4 twice - in 2000 and 2012. So it's rare, but not unheard of.

Nielsen 4....? Oh God, don't get me started....

[cloughie]

Nielsen 4....? Oh God, don't get me started....

I won’t but I bet your comments will be inextinguishable!

[jayne lee wilson]

I won’t but I bet your comments will be inextinguishable!

Literally so..... on the Composers' Subforum.....

[BBMmk2]

Nielsen 4....? Oh God, don't get me started....

Must get back to him.

[seabright]

There's a half-hour RR chat with A McG and Andrew Rose of 'Pristine Audio' from about 10 years or so ago which reminds us that there was a time when "historic recordings" could be heard on the programme. The first item was the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto played by Fritz Kreisler, with Landon Ronald conducting. Nowadays of course it's all the "latest releases" which doubtless go in one ear and out the other. Anyway, at about the 30-minute mark there's the start of an incomplete discussion of "Hattogate." This concerned a whole bunch of CDs which were released and raved over by critics who said what an extraordinary talented pianist Joyce Hatto was. However, it soon emerged that they were all recordings made by other pianists which had been slightly doctored electronically by her husband. The segment ends abruptly, but the various illustrated comparisons are interesting. So how did "Hattogate" turn out in the end? ...

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