Your most valued off air recordings

[Alison]

Since we often talk about our favourite CDs, I was wondering what are you most treasured private recordings off air??

[Barbirollians]

Bruckner 9 Gunter Wand 2001 Proms

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Of course, Forumistas would never flaunt the Law in this way. If I had ever done so, the Music and talks from the Ferneyhough Total Immersion weekend wuld be particular treasures - especially Martyn Brabbins' reading with the BBCSO of La Terre est un'Homme, which (if memory serves me well) was astonishing. I'd still play that regularly if only I'd made a recording. Which I wouldn't've ever dreamt of doing. Of course.

[ARBurton]

Secret!

[pastoralguy]

I have a shoe box full of mini-discs from the Radio 3 'Beethoven Experience' week. I used the 4x setting so an 80 minute disc would record 320 minutes of programme and I set my 'phone alarm to remind me when the disc needed to be changed. If you remember, it was 24 hours a day for 7 days. I think I missed about 15 minutes for the entire week. Oh, and I kept a Radio Times for that week.

I've not listened to it all but a (retired!) friend has. His verdict? Very interesting but too many Scottish song arrangements!

[pastoralguy]

I also have a lot of Edinburgh Festival Queen's Hall concerts that I've attended on mini-disc. Often, the discs will have an autographed programme attached.

[Bryn]

Many have since been replaced by commercial issues of the broadcasts, but one for certain is the 1972 Prom performance (or the extended extract from it which was broadcast) of Cage and Hiller's HPSCHD. Another is the 1981 all-night Prom devised and led by Ustad Vilayat Khan. Then there's Martinu's Julietta (E.N.O., Mackerras). Oh, and John Tilbury's performance of Cage's Music of Changes. Many, many more, but those will have to do for the moment, though Weill's Seven Deadly Sins ... (Covington/E.N.O./Friend) deserves a mention.

[vinteuil]

Of course, Forumistas would never flaunt the Law in this way...

... nor, I hope, would they flout it

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

... nor, I hope, would they flout it

[Petrushka]

I used to have loads of off air recordings stored away on cassettes and video tapes but had to get rid of them. It was a crying shame as there were many Proms I'd been to but for one thing the sound quality wouldn't have passed muster nowadays and for another space was hopelessly limited and I no longer had the machines to play them.

However...

Apart from those (surprisingly many) now issued on commercial CD (thanks to Laurie Watt on the LPO label in particular) I have to thank a fellow Forum member for obtaining for me, at no cost, a recording of the LSO/Karl Böhm concert given at the Royal Albert Hall on December 19 1978. I was present at this and met Böhm after the concert.

This would be a desert island choice for me and a treasured item indeed. The programme was Weber Freischütz Overture, Schubert 5 and LvB 7.

[cloughie]

I used to have loads of off air recordings stored away on cassettes and video tapes but had to get rid of them. It was a crying shame as there were many Proms I'd been to but for one thing the sound quality wouldn't have passed muster nowadays and for another space was hopelessly limited and I no longer had the machines to play them.

However...

Apart from those (surprisingly many) now issued on commercial CD (thanks to Laurie Watt on the LPO label in particular) I have to thank a fellow Forum member for obtaining for me, at no cost, a recording of the LSO/Karl Böhm concert given at the Royal Albert Hall on December 19 1978. I was present at this and met Böhm after the concert.

This would be a desert island choice for me and a treasured item indeed. The programme was Weber Freischütz Overture, Schubert 5 and LvB 7.

Bohm on Schubert 5 was the tops. His VPO Decca mono performance to this day remains my favouriite, but Pet, I agree those late seventies LSO concert were something special - there were some Brahms Symphonies which he shared with Celi, and I can't remember whether Bohm was indisposed and Celi stood in or whether it was the other way round.

[Petrushka]

Bohm on Schubert 5 was the tops. His VPO Decca mono performance to this day remains my favouriite, but Pet, I agree those late seventies LSO concert were something special - there were some Brahms Symphonies which he shared with Celi, and I can't remember whether Bohm was indisposed and Celi stood in or whether it was the other way round.

If I remember correctly Böhm had to cancel some of the LSO Brahms cycle as he had a fall in his hotel room. The Radio 3 announcer said that this was the first time that Böhm had had to cancel a concert through indisposition a fact I find quite extraordinary if true (and assuming I remember correctly).

[slarty]

I attended the second concert (3&1) and was expecting Böhm to conduct. I arrived in London for the concert only to find that Böhm was indisposed and Celi stood in for him at very short notice. This must have been unique for Celi to substitute in this way, however in line with this thread, I have the concert on tape.

[Petrushka]

I used to have the complete VPO/Boskovsky New Year's Day concerts between 1973 and 1979 on tape but afraid they had to go off to the skip along with all the rest.

In truth, the sound must have been pretty dreadful considering the machine I had at that time, the tape quality and so on but I still treasure them in my mind.

[Serial_Apologist]

I'd have to think a bit more about this, but for the moment, I treasure the week of tapings I made when Gian Francesco Malipiero was Composer of the Week, a few years ago.

Then there was the Fairest Isle series, introduced by Andrew Motion, dealing with British, or more specifically English music from the Late Victorian era to the present, in most if not all its varieties.