Andrew Litton recordings

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  • BBMmk2
    Late Member
    • Nov 2010
    • 20908

    #76
    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.
    Don’t cry for me
    I go where music was born

    J S Bach 1685-1750

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    • ferneyhoughgeliebte
      Gone fishin'
      • Sep 2011
      • 30163

      #77
      Originally posted by EnemyoftheStoat View Post
      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.
      [FONT=Comic Sans MS][I][B]Numquam Satis![/B][/I][/FONT]

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