Andrew Litton recordings

[BBMmk2]

How sad, indeed, Alison.

My copy arrived today of the BBC MM and looking forward to see Litton's recording of the cover CD, this month.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Hammy? The Litton recording? You're kidding; understated if anything, and not in a bad way.

Having now played Litton's Manfred, I'm inclined to agree with you, Stoatfoe - well, up until the last six words. Yes, the percussion is prominent (but I think this is the work of the engineers more than the conductor's) but I find the reading a notch or three under the pulse rate I want to hear in the work. The Finale is pretty damn fine, (although whenever the diddle-iddle-dee didi dee dee dee rhythm appears the recording smudges the semiquavers into a don-di-dee didi dee dee dee, particularly in the violins) but the Third movements I prefer a soup can more swift - and more surge in the course of the Movement, The Scherzo is defter and sparkles more in other recordings, and the First Movement ... well, I hear a greater sense of structure and more oomph in Lenard and other recordings; such as

the Rostropovich/LPO, which was how I first met the work and has some of the most satisfyingly rrcorded timp (Alan Cumberland?) and low percussion work I can recall.

Smashing performance - I had it on cassette (Rostropovich's Tchaikovsky symphony set was/is superb) - and Muti and Haitink for me with Lenard in this work: they convince me every time that it is the composer's finest piece. I shall hang on to the Litton and play it again in a couple of months time to see if the scales have fallen from my ears (and there's an awful lot of falling scales in the work). If not, I suspect it'll go into the Charity bag.