A London Symphony - 100th anniversary

[EdgeleyRob]

Manze's ongoing RVW Symphony cycle has been wonderful; if he doesn't record it, it will be a great opportunity missed.

Agreed.

Also,the Bakels/Naxos RVW Symphonies seem to get better with every listen IMVHO.

[Barbirollians]

The Barbirolli remake got a bad press at the time apparently. Heavens knows why it was the first record of VW symphonies I had on EMI Eminence and I am endlessly grateful to it for opening the door to such a wonderful repertoire.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

The Barbirolli remake got a bad press at the time apparently. Heavens knows why it was the first record of VW symphonies I had on EMI Eminence and I am endlessly grateful to it for opening the door to such a wonderful repertoire.

Yes, I remember that. It seemed like copycat journalism, without much substance. I can't think of a version I like better.

[cloughie]

The Barbirolli remake got a bad press at the time apparently. Heavens knows why it was the first record of VW symphonies I had on EMI Eminence and I am endlessly grateful to it for opening the door to such a wonderful repertoire.

Whatever...I seem to remember EMG gave it two stars!

[visualnickmos]

......the Bakels/Naxos RVW Symphonies seem to get better with every listen IMVHO.

I thought exactly that. I think the Naxos set (albeit with two different conductors) will come of age in critical terms.

[Barbirollians]

Whatever...I seem to remember EMG gave it two stars!

I thought it was Trevor Harvey who called it completely lacking in Cockney charm in the second movement - but refined his verdict to rather lacking on the re-release .

[EdgeleyRob]

I thought exactly that. I think the Naxos set (albeit with two different conductors) will come of age in critical terms.

Yes,Paul Daniel in nos 1 & 4 is superb,well,magic.

[Pabmusic]

A mix up of composers with the surname Butterworth here?
George Butterworth, killed in the Great War, and Arthur, a composer still alive and kicking (and much neglected IMHO)?

Where is the confusion? My post clearly says "George".

[Pabmusic]

Yes of course, I was thinking of the reconstruction which was needed to prepare the present score of the original 1913 version of the London. I myself think of the Toye-Butterworth-Dent work more in terms of rewriting, putting together or repairing the score rather than reconstructing (as no bits were missing), but these terms are obviously almost interchangeable..

Toye/Butterworth/Dent reconstructed the lost score from the existing parts. They didn't rewrite anything in the sense of compose it. Butterworth also helped produce a short score, which was the one probably used at the second performance, in Harrogate in August.

[Barbirollians]

Where is the confusion? My post clearly says "George".

Also The Banks of Green Willow is a very apt coupling for Hickox's original version of VW2

[Pabmusic]

Also The Banks of Green Willow is a very apt coupling for Hickox's original version of VW2

Yes, isn't it?

[Barbirollians]

I always find , however, if I listen to the Hickox more than twice I am yearning for the revised version . Lovely as the rejected music is the piece is so much tauter in the revised version .

[visualnickmos]

I always find , however, if I listen to the Hickox more than twice I am yearning for the revised version . Lovely as the rejected music is the piece is so much tauter in the revised version .

Exactement! It really does prove that the composer is ALWAYS right; it's their creation, therefore they, and only they, have the right to present it in the way they want.

[cloughie]

Exactement! It really does prove that the composer is ALWAYS right; it's their creation, therefore they, and only they, have the right to present it in the way they want.

If only Mr Payne was of the same mind !

[Roehre]

Exactement! It really does prove that the composer is ALWAYS right; it's their creation, therefore they, and only they, have the right to present it in the way they want.

There are too many cases and examples in which this statement is very open to discussion, I'm afraid; Especially in those cases in which composers most likely have not put their last will and testament to a score, or those who did not hear their work live.
Even very experienced composers like JSBach, Stravinsky or Mahler made mistakes, or were not sure of the sounding results of their work.
If composers were always right, why do they revise their works, like Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Schumann, Liszt, Bruckner, Tchaikovsky, Grieg, Dvorak, Elgar, Mahler, RStrauss, Sibelius, Vaughan Williams, Ives, Rachmaninov, Bartok, Bax, Hartmann, Barber, Bliss, Copland, Bernstein, Britten, Boulez, Ligeti, Henze, to mention only a few?