The first day of the month has been marked by Tchaikovsky's "December" from 'The Seasons' as orchestrated by David Matthews. It's another of Tchaikovsky's many waltzes and is therefore quite nice ... 
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Sir Arthur Bliss's discography consists almost entirely of him conducting his own music or that of other English composers, such as Elgar, whose five Pomp & Circumstance Marches he once recorded for Decca, along with his own "Things to Come" Suite. However, he was also engaged by Readers Digest to record a "Tribute to Sargent" LP which started off with what was evidently a Sargent favourite, Rossini's "Journey to Rheims" Overture. On the strength of this sparkling and effervescent performance, it's a pity Bliss wasn't engaged to record more music by other composers ...
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Yes, I agree. Those P&C marches, recorded by Decca for RCA I believe, were very good. And I'm sorry Elgar wan't asked to record more, e.g. Brahms 3 or Mozart 40 , for which he had a great liking. When he was chief conductor of the LSO, briefly, he programmed some interesting and unfamiliar itmes, Vincet D'Indy, etcComment
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In many ways I reckon Elgar, purely musically speaking, was our British d'Indy equivalent, so maybe that is not such a surprise: the filtered Wagnerian, tempered by the mixture of French and Russian influences, made to comprise an indigenous vernacular.Originally posted by smittims View PostComment
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Not to mention the right-wing views of both men!Comment
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My understanding was that Elgar was naively apolitical.Originally posted by smittims View PostComment
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Oh, no, he was naively Conservative! I think it stemmed from his provincial tradesman-class background, always looking to know his place but keep in with the 'quality'. I know that sounds harsh, and H G Wells, who was from just the same background, had socialist views, but to be fair to Elgar we need to look at him in context and avoid anachronism. Michael Kennedy's more recent book (A life of Elgar , CUP) is good on this.Comment
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YouTube has become a great archive of programmes and recordings from the past that otherwise would be gathering dust in some archive or other. Smittims mentions Michael Kennedy and here he is in a 1984 TV documentary about Elgar called "Hope and Glory." Jerrold Northrop Moore is in it too and musical examples are supplied by the two very youthful Simon Rattle and Nigel Kennedy ...
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Those of you who are violinists will presumably know what "scrubbing" means. John Wilson leads the BBCSO strings though a piece called "Scrub, brothers, scrub!" in a 100-miles-an-hour performance from 2011 which caused some amused expressions on the faces of several of the players ... ...
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Thanks for that. Highly enjoyable trip down memory lane - not least for some of the extraordinary hairstyles on display!Originally posted by seabright View PostComment
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Jerrold Northrop Moore is still with us, aged 88. I wonder if he ever dips into YouTube and sees his former self in this programme?Originally posted by Sir Velo View PostComment
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I remember seing that programme at the time. It coincided with the publication of Moore's magnificent book ' A Creative Life'.
I also noted Timothy West's 'Beecham ' play, and Ken Russell's 'other' Elgar film, 'Fantasy of a composer on a bicycle'. Strongly recommended.Comment
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Originally posted by smittims View Post
Well, taking your recommendations into account, here are the respective links to that great classical archive, YouTube, starting with Timothy West as Beecham ...
Here is Ken Russell's first film about Elgar from 1962, with the 'Introduction and Allegro' memorably accompanying the boy playing the young composer as he gallops over the Malvern Hills on his pony ...
And here is the second Russell film from 2002 to which you refer - 'Fantasy on a Composer on a Bicycle' ...
All three programmes are a bit fuzzy visually, probably due to being copied from old VHS video tapes, but they're better than nothing!Comment
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Time for some Sleigh Rides, I think ...
Mozart's with Stokowski conducting ..
Bernard Herrmann's, conducted by the composer ...
Leroy Anderson's, Karl Hirzer conducting ...
Prokofiev's, conducted by Fistoulari ...
Any others ?
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