Highlights of Schubert on 3

[cloughie]

There seem to be remarkably few highlights after some 8 days of solid Schubert. Or are there so many that Schubertathonophiles are keeping their powder dry or still working on their short lists?

And when you think its all over - we have the April 1 Summary on Rob Cowan's Sunday Morning!

[MrGongGong]

The highlight for me will be this

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b012fcp0

with the awesome Sayan Bapa and friends ............ (Huun Huur Tu)

[Hornspieler]

One performance I heard and want to hear again is that by Solomon of the Sonata in A, D.664 which I don't know but thought was a wonderful example of a virtuoso at his simple best. Apparently the coupling on Testament of LvanB's Op.111 isn't bad either!

I'm sorry to have missed that. I used to have a 12 inch record of Solomon playing the A flat Polonaise. Many, many years ago.

HS

[amateur51]

I'm sorry to have missed that. I used to have a 12 inch record of Solomon playing the A flat Polonaise. Many, many years ago.

HS

Here you go, HS

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJDXXpPzF1w

[JFLL]

One performance I heard and want to hear again is that by Solomon of the Sonata in A, D.664 which I don't know but thought was a wonderful example of a virtuoso at his simple best.

That's one I've got on vinyl (or rather my mother has, as she's the guardian of my early vinyl collection). There's a lovely picture on the sleeve of the great man in a very nice pinstripe suit, looking the soul of bonhomie. I seem to remember it was praised as the best version somewhere in the mid-sixties -- perhaps in the Gramophone, but more probably in the E.M.G. Monthly Letter which I used to subscribe to (anyone remember that? 12 bob a year sub, if I remember rightly, and very good value, too)

[Norfolk Born]

And when you think its all over - we have the April 1 Summary on Rob Cowan's Sunday Morning!

No fear! I shall probably be listening to the first in the new series of 'The Reunion' (one of a number of Radio 4 series that I have discovered thanks to the progressive degradation of the Sunday morning schedule on Radio 3).

[Don Petter]

That's one I've got on vinyl (or rather my mother has, as she's the guardian of my early vinyl collection). There's a lovely picture on the sleeve of the great man in a very nice pinstripe suit, looking the soul of bonhomie. I seem to remember it was praised as the best version somewhere in the mid-sixties -- perhaps in the Gramophone, but more probably in the E.M.G. Monthly Letter which I used to subscribe to (anyone remember that? 12 bob a year sub, if I remember rightly, and very good value, too)

Interestingly, although Stephen Plaistow gave ALP1901 a very warm review in the April 1962 Gramophone, he had some reservations about the recording, which, by then, as he said, was five years old. (It had been released, it seems, to mark Solomon's sixtieth birthday.) It must have been recorded in the first days of stereo for HMV, as the Testament CD was from a stereo source, I believe, which was never issued on LP.

EMG, however, rated the issue as only one star (recommended, but with reservations), but gave it EE for the recording (wide tonal contrasts and extremes of volume not needing any filtering).

Best to listen to your own ears!

[JFLL]

Interestingly, although Stephen Plaistow gave ALP1901 a very warm review in the April 1962 Gramophone, he had some reservations about the recording, which, by then, as he said, was five years old. (It had been released, it seems, to mark Solomon's sixtieth birthday.) It must have been recorded in the first days of stereo for HMV, as the Testament CD was from a stereo source, I believe, which was never issued on LP.

EMG, however, rated the issue as only one star (recommended, but with reservations), but gave it EE for the recording (wide tonal contrasts and extremes of volume not needing any filtering).

Best to listen to your own ears!

That's very interesting, Don, thanks for all the detail. I shall retrieve the LP next time I'm at my mother's, and also my copies of EMG Letter. I wonder whether the version I have is a cheaper re-issue from later in the 60s, because I rarely had the money to buy full-price LPs in those days (39/6, weren't they?)

[LeMartinPecheur]

I wonder whether the version I have is a cheaper re-issue from later in the 60s, because I rarely had the money to buy full-price LPs in those days (39/6, weren't they?)

HMV XLP 30053? No natty pinstriped artist on the sleeve but a piano keyboard overgrown with ivy-like leaves and red blooms. Quite fitting for D664 but less so for K331 and Haydn Sonata in C No.35??

[JFLL]

HMV XLP 30053? No natty pinstriped artist on the sleeve but a piano keyboard overgrown with ivy-like leaves and red blooms. Quite fitting for D664 but less so for K331 and Haydn Sonata in C No.35??

O lor, I'm beginning to think memory has been playing false. I do seem to remember that the other pieces on the record were the Mozart and Haydn (was that on Concert Classics?) But I'm damned sure I do have a vinyl record somewhere of Solomon in a pinstripe suit! I'll dig about in my ma's record cabinet when I'm there next.

[Paul Sherratt]

When does it end?

[Don Petter]

That's very interesting, Don, thanks for all the detail. I shall retrieve the LP next time I'm at my mother's, and also my copies of EMG Letter. I wonder whether the version I have is a cheaper re-issue from later in the 60s, because I rarely had the money to buy full-price LPs in those days (39/6, weren't they?)

jf,

You might find more detailed comment in the EMG Letter, if you find it. I was quoting from EMG's 'The Art of Record Buying - 1963' where the recordings are just given as single line entries in the tabulation.

PS Let us know if you solve the pinstripe mystery. This would seem to be the cover of ALP1901. (The style is about right for 1962, when the 'mono' and 'stereo' banners were much in evidence:

http://pds20.egloos.com/pds/201005/25/37/f0018137_4bfb17a366acd.jpg

[Norfolk Born]

When does it end?

The Schubertathon? 0100 Sunday morning.

[LeMartinPecheur]

After the enthusiasm generated here for Solomon's D664 I've just been amazed to discover via an online complete discography that he also recorded D784 (Abbey Rd, 3-4/12/52), HMV ALP1400. It isn't reviewed in the 1952, '53 or '55 "Record Guides" and AFAIK it has never been reissued. This ought to be a top treasure: does anyone know it, or know any reason why it's sunk without trace?

PS Looks like ALP1400 is the disc illustrated via Don Petter's link (D664 and D784). But still odd that D784 seems to have disappeared much more totally than the D664. Why?

[JFLL]

PS Let us know if you solve the pinstripe mystery.

Will do (it's not the cover in your link, though). I'm wondering now whether it was his recording of Schumann's Carnaval I'm confusing the picture with.