First impressions may have been of a bit of a showman playing (among other things) well-worn classics. And maybe the 'intense' flute tone is not to everyone's taste. But hang on a minute. The BBC was actually televising music in those days, and bringing it to a BBC1 public. Would that happen now? Of course not...and what a disgraceful state of affairs. So well done James G. for your consummate musicianship and your communication skills.
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I liked it anyway. I think Galway is still very talented, though there are other ways to play, and his style may not be so fashionable nowadays. It's also amazing that he is still playing. Richard Adeney decided to call it a day and move into photography at an earlier age than Galway is now. -
Just the thing for a Sunday evening as far as I'm concerned. I was never that much of a fan of Galway's flute sound but that didn't really matter in the context of those happy days when actual music and musicians appeared on chat shows and as part of general evening entertainment. I liked the straightforward presentation of the programme - musical slots interspersed with Galway chatting, and the factual stuff as text boxes on screen - but oh dear, as ardcarp says, didn't it just highlight how far things have slipped.Comment
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One web page I found suggested that Galway and Rampal were both millionaires. I found this about JG - https://www.celebritynetworth.com/ri...way-net-worth/ which suggests he's made a few bob, though the methods used to verify that may be questionable.
Might explain those gold flutes, plus the one with diamonds - which seemed a bit pointless to me.Comment
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I liked the straightforward presentation of the programme - musical slots interspersed with Galway chatting, and the factual stuff as text boxes on screen
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RTE Lyric FM broadcast an 80th birthday tribute concert yesterday afternoon. Both James and Mrs G played, and also some of their pupils.
Back in the 1980s we attended a concert at the Fairfield Hall in Croydon in which he conducted the ECO and played a concerto by Rodrigo and - if memory serves - K299 together with Marisa Robles. Later that evening he was Brian Matthews's guest in 'Round Midnight' on Radio 2. When asked how the concert went, he said, 'Oh it was great, even now they're rampaging through the streets celebrating' (Croydon audiences were, and possibly still are, very conservative).Comment
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Heh, heh, that would be Rodrigo's Concierto Pastoral. I well remember an interview with Galway around the time of its premiere. He boasted how he was the only flautist capable of playing it. In a matter of months, others took it up, and to my ears, often to better effect. Though technically a true master of his instrument, I never really took to his tone, whether via the flute or the spoken word. He had/has some strange ideas regarding pyramids. When his legs and an arm were broken in a road accident he attributed his recovery to the pyramid structure he had placed over his legs while in hospital. He does play a very fine tin whistle though, his first instrument, IIRC.Originally posted by LMcD View PostComment
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They didn't include the first time I knowingly came across James Galway, on Face the Music, telling the story (as he did umpteen times afterwards) of his audition with the BPO. Though of course I'd had the BPO/Rostropovich/Karajan Dvorak Cello Concerto, with that glorious flute solo in the slow movement, for a couple of years
A bit of a cop-out by Val Doonican on Duelling Banjos - he strummed the difficult bits
. I liked the Chieftains bit (O'Neill's March).
I saw a conductor I recognised - Hiroyuki Iwaki (about a third of the way in, conducting the LPO in Waiata Poi) was conducting the Bournemouth SO when I saw Paul Tortelier play the Elgar Cello Concerto in Exeter in 1970 (also on the programme, Britten Sea Pictures and Tchaikovsky 4th - which he conducted using a miniature score
- Tortelier played the Prelude to 1st Bach Cello Suite as an encore, after a pretty speech).
But - apart from a bit of Mozart and Bach, and perhaps including those, a bit like scoffing a box of chocolates in one go and feeling a bit green afterwards.Comment
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Originally posted by Bryn View Post
...even two of them at once.
Reminds me of a university music student opting to play his finals recital on said instrument. Perhaps he should have gone to JG for lessons, although recalling the quality of the playing, that may have been of none effect.
Karajan was somewhat displeased by Jimmy's hirsute appearance. Is it a coincidence that from around that period he began to conduct the Berliners with his eyes shut?Comment
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JG - great guy, fantastic musician and encourager of others - how many young musicians over the years were inspired to play the flute because him and also another flautist - Atarah Ben Tovim, of the RLPO. It is sometimes easy to knock, maybe because of crossover/popular music! On a seasonal note - his ‘Christmas Carol’ LP and now CD is still a favourite of mine and a fine example of his wonderful playing.Comment
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Something which really brought back memories was Benjamin's Jamaican Rumba. I've never forgotten my sister and her friend playing this in a recorder version at a school concert and stunning everyone with their mastery of flutter tonguing for the opening. It's probably standard technique now but pushing 50 years ago it certainly wasn't; I was a bit disappointed JG didn't do it.Comment
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My memory of JG is before he was well known, playing in a quartet piece of mine in a concert at Dartington Summer School. Rehearsals went OK but he messsed up at the concert. I was gutted. Think he was p*ssed! Sorry Jimmy if I'm wrong.Comment
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When was that ?Originally posted by Lordgeous View Post
I saw a bit of this and then realised his soupy vibrato was going all over everything so went elsewhere
I do have an LP of an experimental ensemble project with Peter Michael Hamel that has JG on it.Comment
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it would have been in the late 1960s I think.Comment
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This would be 'Einstieg' perhaps? Released in 1971 and available in full on YouTube.Originally posted by MrGongGong View PostComment
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