What Classical Music Are You listening to Now? III

[oliver sudden]

Yes, 'other members' will have had quite enough of this love-in

Don't let me stop you, it's very sweet!

I love that Britten though. And not just because I'm a Melbourne lad. But I always wish I could hear the last C major chord properly under the last little C minor solo fragments.

[LMcD]

Yes, 'other members' will have had quite enough of this love-in, but what are 'proper' music shop owners for if not dispensers of travel info, restaurant recommendations and wine advocacy!

Now with the Walter Leigh one of those nice bottles of Brunello you should have brought back from Tuscany!

I've got on Britten's Suite on English Folk Tunes: A time there was....now a pint of Adnams with that, I think.

Would that be 'proper' owners of music shops or owners of 'proper' music shops?

[Roger Webb]

Would that be 'proper' owners of music shops or owners of 'proper' music shops?

The parentheses indicate that either or both were considered improper by suspicious customers after the hysteria whipped up over CD pricing. 'They only cost a pound to make' was the charge of the popular press, my answer was 'does that include the music' - orchestral music came in at about £60,000 for an hour's worth, opera a lot more...and in Many cases sold a couple of thousand on release!

'Proper' CD shop owners (I flatter myself) at least provided 'other services', as indicated above, as we fleeced the unsuspecting punters.

[smittims]

Beethoven, sonatas in E and A flat, opp. 109 and 110: Myra Hess.

Thsi 1954 HMV Lp was reissued as a 'Concert Classics' disc, but with the same matrix number. Several reviews commented on the warm recorded sound and the genial , relaxed performance. This came about because the producer,the young Brian Culverhouse, knowing that Dame Myra disliked studio recording, told her to play in her own time, and persuaded the engineer to let the tape run.

[Pulcinella]

Prompted by Roger and Oliver:
Britten's Suite on English Folk Tunes: A time there was
Still too few recordings of this imho (Bedford, Bernstein, Boughton, Hickox, MacMillan, Rattle).
I have Boughton and Rattle. Was Bernstein the first to record it?
I remember the music being very poignantly used in a Britten documentary (that might itself have been titled 'A time there was').

PS: Indeed it was, and it's on YouTube.
Tony Palmer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECQqWrn1-i4

[Roger Webb]

Prompted by Roger and Oliver:
Britten's Suite on English Folk Tunes: A time there was
Still too few recordings of this imho (Bedford, Bernstein, Boughton, Hickox, MacMillan, Rattle).
I have Boughton and Rattle. Was Bernstein the first to record it?
I remember the music being very poignantly used in a Britten documentary (that might itself have been titled 'A time there was').

PS: Indeed it was, and it's on YouTube.
Tony Palmer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECQqWrn1-i4

In connection with Britten, worth having a search for Teresa Griffith's 'The Hidden Heart' , commissioned by Jan Younghusband for BBC 4 and focusing on Grimes and Death in Venice, Britten's first and last operas and War Requiem in between.
I have the DVD which is going on tonight! Forgot I had it!

[Sir Velo]

Weber Clarinet Quintet in B Flat Hoeprich; London Haydn Quartet

https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/8794350--weber-krommer-baermann-clarinet-quintets

Loving the irresistible creamy tone of Eric Hoeprich on a copy of a period 10-key B flat clarinet in a warm but detailed recording. Perfect Sunday morning listening.

[LMcD]

The parentheses indicate that either or both were considered improper by suspicious customers after the hysteria whipped up over CD pricing. 'They only cost a pound to make' was the charge of the popular press, my answer was 'does that include the music' - orchestral music came in at about £60,000 for an hour's worth, opera a lot more...and in Many cases sold a couple of thousand on release!

'Proper' CD shop owners (I flatter myself) at least provided 'other services', as indicated above, as we fleeced the unsuspecting punters.

... and now we have shops/owners that sell 'proper' CDs! (Just joking) .
Most of the CDs I buy these days cost £1, and some considerably less, which goes to show that patience is indeed a virtue. I've been reliably informed by an impeccable source that, if I wait just a bit longer, some of our local charity shops might actually start paying 'punters' to take them off their hands in order to make space for more profitable lines.

[Pulcinella]

Decided to stream the Britten from this compilation (it's not listed on the cover):

https://www.prestomusic.com/classica...certos#reviews

• Britten: Suite on English Folk Tunes 'A Time there was', Op. 90
• MacMillan: Oboe Concerto
• MacMillan: One for chamber orchestra
• Vaughan Williams: Oboe Concerto in A minor

[Roger Webb]

... and now we have shops/owners that sell 'proper' CDs! (Just joking) .
Most of the CDs I buy these days cost £1, and some considerably less, which goes to show that patience is indeed a virtue. I've been reliably informed by an impeccable source that, if I wait just a bit longer, some of our local charity shops might actually start paying 'punters' to take them off their hands in order to make space for more profitable lines.

Yes, ditto for DVDs in charity shops - I bought a complete unopened DVD box set of the Met/Levine Ring for £10 (just over £1 a DVD!) in Weston Super Mare...I claim I actually liberated it from a life of neglect, destined merely to collect dust, overlooked by those searching for that elusive Die Hard 6 to complete the collection!

[smittims]

Beethoven: Violin Concerto. Yehudi Menuhin, Vienna Philharmonic, Constantin Silvestri. HMV ASD 377.

I think this is the best of Menuhin's five studio recordings of this work. It was also one of the plums of Victor Olof's series of HMV recordings made in Vienna (the Kempe Lohengrin being another) . It's one of those discs that makes me wonder why anyone else should bother to record the work afterwards.

[Pulcinella]

An organ symphony other than the Saint-Saëns:

Copland
Symphony for organ and orchestra
Power Biggs/NYPO/Bernstein

Power Biggs must have done a promotional tour at the time of the recording/release, as I heard him play it with the RLPO under Groves.
I don't have the date in my pocket score, but I would guess it was 1967 or 1968; the recording was made in January 1967 so the concert was likely to have been in the following season, I would have thought (unless he practised/played it a lot before recording!).

[oliver sudden]

Rimsky-Korsakov, Scheherazade, RPO/Beecham.

I do love me a good warhorse. And fortunately so do the twins.

[oliver sudden]

And now on to Mozart 39. LCP/Norrington. I can’t believe so few get the tempo of the opening right (it’s in 2, people).

[pastoralguy]

... and now we have shops/owners that sell 'proper' CDs! (Just joking) .
Most of the CDs I buy these days cost £1, and some considerably less, which goes to show that patience is indeed a virtue. I've been reliably informed by an impeccable source that, if I wait just a bit longer, some of our local charity shops might actually start paying 'punters' to take them off their hands in order to make space for more profitable lines.

Alas, some charity shops have stopped selling CDs.