Neville Marriner R.I.P.

[pastoralguy]

I was introduced to Mozart's K. 136, 137, 138 and the Serenata Notturno through Sir Neville and the ASMF's recording. That really started my love of Mozart's music.

[Barbirollians]

Sad news RIP but he clearly lived life to the full right to the end having given his last performance only 2 days before he died according to the Times obituary today . Unfortunately the recordings of his I have heard seldom did much for me no doubt much more the fault of my ears than the ASMF and Sir Neville whose recordings so many people loved .

[ardcarp]

Après l'annonce de la disparition de Neville Marriner dimanche 2 octobre, à l'âge de 92 ans, France Musique change ses programmes, et propose une soirée présentée par Judith Chaine en hommage au grand chef d'orchestre.
http://www.francemusique.fr/emission...-02-2016-20-00

J'espere que le BBC (BBC4 peut-etre?) va produire un emission en homage a lui......

[Dave2002]

Perhaps this link to the France Musique site might work better - http://www.francemusique.fr/emission...-02-2016-20-00

[hmvman]

I returned from a weekend away to hear the news of Sir Neville Marriner's passing. I can only echo the sentiments of many on here. His recordings with the ASMF were a huge part of my early interest in music and introduced me to so many works. I met Sir Neville once way back in 1978 when he was at the Army & Navy store in Victoria Street, London doing a promotion of some kind. I chatted to him about the Vivaldi Four Seasons recording. He must've been asked about it hundreds of times but he chatted to me happily and enthusiastically. It's still a very happy memory of a charming man.

If I had to name a favourite recording out of the very many that I love, it would be the 1971 Argo set of the Bach Suites for Orchestra. I play it when I'm feeling down and it never fails to bring pleasure and lift the spirits.

R.I.P Sir Neville and many thanks for all the music.

[MickyD]

J'espere que le BBC (BBC4 peut-etre?) va produire un emission en homage a lui......

Vous pouvez toujours courir!

[ardcarp]

D'accord. I will.

Did you mean 'courier' or am I missing out cool usage?

[Alain Maréchal]

ardcarp: I have tried to ignore it so far but the inner pedagogue rebels: une émission, svp. oh, and "hommage", "courrier" or "courriel" - email.(a hateful neologism but it is useful). There, I feel better.

Never attempt to keep up with cool usage - by the time you have mastered it the usage will have moved on.

To be fair to Radio 3, France Musique's Sunday evening programmes are usually studio-based presentations, so it was easy to change the schedule. Sir Neville was highly respected here, deservedly so; the mention of his passing still crops up tonight.

[Ferretfancy]

I was introduced to Mozart's K. 136, 137, 138 and the Serenata Notturno through Sir Neville and the ASMF's recording. That really started my love of Mozart's music.

I had the same experience getting to know Haydn's Paris symphonies. He was not a 'star' conductor in the Karajan mould, he would no doubt have hated the thought, but he was always there. Looking through my collection I find that I have 386 entries in my catalogue of items conducted by him, no doubt others have more and they regularly come down off the shelf and onto the turntable or into the CD player.

[Roslynmuse]

I returned from a weekend away to hear the news of Sir Neville Marriner's passing. I can only echo the sentiments of many on here. His recordings with the ASMF were a huge part of my early interest in music and introduced me to so many works. I met Sir Neville once way back in 1978 when he was at the Army & Navy store in Victoria Street, London doing a promotion of some kind. I chatted to him about the Vivaldi Four Seasons recording. He must've been asked about it hundreds of times but he chatted to me happily and enthusiastically. It's still a very happy memory of a charming man.

If I had to name a favourite recording out of the very many that I love, it would be the 1971 Argo set of the Bach Suites for Orchestra. I play it when I'm feeling down and it never fails to bring pleasure and lift the spirits.

R.I.P Sir Neville and many thanks for all the music.

That Bach set is (along with an ASD disc of bon-bons including Pachelbel, Queen of Sheba, etc) my earliest association with Sir Neville's name. Happy memories...

[doversoul1]

Tomorrow’s Record Review

10.20am Interview with Sir Neville Marriner
A repeat of an interview with the late Sir Neville Marriner, broadcast first in August 2014. Sir Neville reflects on half-a-century of recording history with the ensemble he founded in the late 50s, the Academy of St Martin in the Fields. Andrew and Sir Neville Marriner chose recordings from ‘The Argo Years’, the 28 disc box released for Sir Neville’s 90th birthday:


Sir Neville Marriner: The Argo Years
Academy of St Martin in the Fields, Sir Neville Marriner (conductor)
DECCA 4786883 (28CD)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07y9nl8

[pastoralguy]

10.20am Interview with Sir Neville Marriner
A repeat of an interview with the late Sir Neville Marriner, broadcast first in August 2014. Sir Neville reflects on half-a-century of recording history with the ensemble he founded in the late 50s, the Academy of St Martin in the Fields. Andrew and Sir Neville Marriner chose recordings from ‘The Argo Years’, the 28 disc box released for Sir Neville’s 90th birthday:


Sir Neville Marriner: The Argo Years
Academy of St Martin in the Fields, Sir Neville Marriner (conductor)
DECCA 4786883 (28CD)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07y9nl8

Lovely to hear Sir Neville in conversation with Andrew this morning. I was very interested in what he had to say about the late, great Alan Loveday. There are so many of Loveday's recordings that have never made it to cd including four Beethoven sonatas and the Violin Concerto.

[Gordon]

............ I chatted to him about the Vivaldi Four Seasons recording. He must've been asked about it hundreds of times but he chatted to me happily and enthusiastically. It's still a very happy memory of a charming man......

I wonder if he told you about the history behind the making of the recording? The "Academy" recorded the Vivaldi 4 times but only once with Sir N & Alan Loveday as soloist and that was on 8=10th September 1969. The others were later formations of the ASMF with Iona Brown or Kenneth Sillito in charge and these were made for other companies than Argo/Decca, eg Philips.

It was a special occasion because the recording was meant to be at Kingsway Hall but there was a fall of the ceiling there one Sunday evening just after service had finished which made Decca, who made the recording for Argo, scramble to find another venue. This caused the discovery of St John's Smith Square where many of the later Academy recordings were made. St John's had just been refurbished and so became available just in time. The engineers were Stan Goodall and Tryggvi Tryggvason, Ashkenazy's brother in law, not the famous Kenneth Wilkinson. The rest as they say is history.

Later however it transpired that Decca didn't like the sound in there!! According to a letter from Peter Andry [EMI senior producer] dated January 22nd 1970:

"Mr Cook [Gus Cook of Abbey Road] obtained an interesting piece of information from Mr Wilkinson concerning the use of Smith Square church as a recording venue. Arthur Haddy [Technical Chief at Decca] had wanted EMI to go into this church, which had been converted at great cost [not by Decca], exclusively with Decca [as they were in Kingsway], but Mr Bicknell [EMI A&R chief] and I, after seeing the church, decided it would be unsuitable. Now it transpires that Decca do not like the acoustics of Smith Square".

Given the later history at St John's this is quite strange as Philips and later DG were quite happy in there.

My own favourite ASMF recording is the Handel Op3 set illustrated this morning. A Kenneth Wilkinson recording made in February and March 1964, their first time at Kingsway, with the classic Decca Tree. Such a small group for such a large sound. Note the continuo harpsichord on right and organ on left used in No6.