Originally posted by Bryn
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You’ll change your mind if he records Walton 1, Nethersage
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Must admit I’ve even got the Richard Rodney Bennett discs …Originally posted by cloughie View PostComment
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He's an outstanding supporter of British music, particularly. A Walton 1st would be good; though as an ardent Baxian, I particularly wish he'd record the Bax symphonies - which JW himself loves dearly. We urgently need a new cycle from a younger generation, especially as Thomson, Lloyd Jones and Handley are sadly no longer with us, and Elder (who certainly understands how to approach Bax's complex symphonic scores to great effect) has other fish to fry.Originally posted by cloughie View Post
By the way, the line Mr Service repeated on Saturday, attributed to Walton (accurately, "‘I may be able to knock Bax off the map") comes from a private letter to Siegfried Sassoon and was jocular in context. The young WW respected AB greatly. As we know, though RVW's 4th and Walton's 1st both challenged Bax's position as internationally acknowledged head of the modern, British symphonic school, his own 6th Symphony certainly kept him in the race until World War II.
(Bax's fan club included Nielsen, by the way, who conducted Bax's 1st Symphony soon after its premiere, in Denmark. Not a lot of people know that!)Comment
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Previn was correct.The finale of that particular concerto a conductors' graveyard, if ever there was one, along with, inter alia, the finale of Schumann PC or the adagio of LVB 9, but to return to Walton 1, having just caught up on BBC Sounds, I didn't find a lot to object to in this BAL. TS's love and enthusiasm for WW's masterpiece was palpable, and the excerpts surveyed gave a broad historical context -- I hadn't heard LSO/Harty, for instance, dodgy brass & all. Like most on this forum I've retained LSO/Previn as the gold standard in this piece for many decades, but was impressed by what could justifiably be described as a greater amplitude in CBSO/Rattle & BSO/Karabits, neither of which I had heard. One slightly disappointing aspect of Alpie's list -- for which, many thanks -- is the absence of recordings from the other side of The Pond, apart from one by the New Haven Symphony. I'm sure they're very good, but I would have thought this piece, perhaps above all 20th cent. Brit compositions, would have lent itself to the virtuosic, well-drilled commitment of one of the crack American outfits -- Cleveland/Szell perhaps, back in their 60s pomp (commissioners of WW's Partita, of which they made an outstanding recording) or NYPO/Bernstein.Originally posted by Ein Heldenleben View PostComment
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The Previn recording turned me on to this symphony in a big way in my teens, and I’ve gone out of my way to hear new versions since then, in the hope of a reading of equivalent or greater / alternative impact. I remember anticipating the Rattle hugely but being disappointed (both by the performance and particularly the recorded sound); whereas the Haitink got a big tick from me when it came out as a different and stunningly well-recorded view of the piece.
The Service embargo (I find the guy’s broadcasting style has become insufferable) was temporarily lifted for this BAL but…
… well let’s just say I was glad to be informed about the Karabits which had passed me by - will have a proper listen to it (although the extracts came across as a bit thinly recorded, on the radio I was listening on)"...the isle is full of noises,
Sounds and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not.
Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments
Will hum about mine ears, and sometime voices..."
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Time to move on from that British Thomson Houston radio Rumpole …..Originally posted by Nick Armstrong View PostComment
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Originally posted by antongould View Post
The cat’s starting to resent the assault on its whiskers"...the isle is full of noises,
Sounds and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not.
Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments
Will hum about mine ears, and sometime voices..."
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Interesting that when EMI/Warner put out their "Collector's Edition" (now removed from the catalogue, perhaps due to their only conceiving of a single "Collector"Originally posted by Nick Armstrong View Post
) they chose the Haitink over the Rattle to represent the 1st Symphony, though they went for Rattle in Belshazzar's Feast.
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Yes they did and even I as an ex employee was amazed to find they were one of the very early UK radio manufacturers ….Originally posted by cloughie View PostComment
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I am with you - that widely praised disc of French music I found slick but soulless.Originally posted by Bryn View PostComment
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You hit the nail on the head. My guess is that Hurwitz's criteria for his disdain were rather different. However, I am not tempted to test that contention by searching out and reading his comments.Originally posted by Barbirollians View PostComment
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