YouTube: the thread for interesting video links

[smittims]

It's fascinating to hear Continental orchestras play British music, usually from the German-speaking world , though. I don't recall any French or Italian orchestras tackling Holst or VW.

The earliest non-English 'Planets' I know is Boult's 1959 Westminster recording made with the Vienna Opera Orchestra (unless the Karajan/Decca was earlier) . And many years ago I heard a really cracking VW fourth by the Hungarian Radio and Television Orchestra.

[seabright]

It's fascinating to hear Continental orchestras play British music, usually from the German-speaking world , though. I don't recall any French or Italian orchestras tackling Holst or VW.

The earliest non-English 'Planets' I know is Boult's 1959 Westminster recording made with the Vienna Opera Orchestra (unless the Karajan/Decca was earlier) . And many years ago I heard a really cracking VW fourth by the Hungarian Radio and Television Orchestra.

The first non-British "Planets" - or rather just the first four (Mars, Venus, Mercury and Jupiter) - were recorded for RCA Victor in 1942 by the Toronto Symphony conductor Sir Ernest MacMillan. They are on YouTube in their separate 78rpm disc formats. A 'live' performance of the whole work, given by the NBC Symphony under Stokowski in 1943 and issued by both Cala and Pristine, seems to be the first complete non-British recording. Again there are some separate movements on YouTube as "samplers" ...

MacMillan's "Mercury" ... very speedy! ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8eJaPB4oyE&t=15s

Stokowski's "Neptune" ... less the music of a "mystic" than a lamentation for the war then raging across the world, particularly when the imploring voices of the female choir come in ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BoVCqc8TORc

[RichardB]

I wonder how familiar this work is to foreign orchestras and audiences these days?

It was played here in Belgrade by the Philharmonic a few months ago. Scanning some listings I see that it's being performed in Paris in May (in the Salle Pierre Boulez of the Philharmonie!), in Gran Canaria in June, and in Perth (Australia) and the Teatro La Fenice (twice) in October. Just looking at Youtube you'll see performances in Spain, Poland, Canada and Singapore, among others, so I would infer that it's a pretty familiar work wherever orchestral music is played.

[smittims]

Thanks, seabright, that's fascinating. I didn't know Stokowski's involvement with the 'Planets' went back that far. I've always liked his 1957 Capitol recording which was the first LP I bought, as a boy, on Music For Pleasure, though I know it hasn't had a good critical reputation.

[RichardB]

I've always liked his 1957 Capitol recording which was the first LP I bought, as a boy, on Music For Pleasure, though I know it hasn't had a good critical reputation.

That is something you and I have in common. (My second LP was on the same label, Steinberg conducting Beethoven 5.) I played it so often that I'm probably still measuring newer recordings against it. What is supposed to be the problem with this recording?

[seabright]

Thanks RichardB for the list of non-British "Planets" on YouTube. It makes me wonder if the "Enigma Variations" might be the principal follow-up when it comes to the popularity of major English orchestral works being played outside the UK. Once again, there are some first-rate 'live' TV transmissions on YouTube, starting with a Dutch orchestra under a Russian conductor giving a performance which received a standing ovation from the Amsterdam Concertgebouw audience ...

Netherlands Radio Philharmonic conducted by Stanislav Kochanovsky ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jz6mncwwaeY

Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Jacek Kaspszyk ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vLNLvcBmoqo&t=62s

Mannheimer Philharmoniker conducted by Boian Videnoff ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bkCEKD_Hhg

St. Petersburg Philharmonic conducted by Yuri Temirkanov ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lM8l7XoVb1k

Kanagawa Philharmonic, Yokohama, conducted by Kahchun Wong ... Title etc. in Japanese! ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXlWxR8OAiE&t=40s

Perm Opera and Ballet Theatre Orchestra, Russia, conducted by Valeriy Platonov ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjk2nGVczdU

Antwerp Symphony Orchestra conducted by Mark Elder ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KxW8HW_hySo&t=85s

NHK Symphony Orchestra, Tokyo, conducted by Tadaaki Otaka ... Title etc. also in Japanese! ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1cLHS3OEUMw&t=27s

Texas Festival Orchestra conducted by JoAnn Falletta ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QB8cE0B11lE

I have not added Roger Norrington's Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra performance because - and I may be in a minority of one here - I can't stand the emaciated vibrato-less sound he gets his string players to adopt. Nor have I included British orchestras under non-British conductors, though you will find TV performances on YouTube with Bernstein and the BBCSO, Rozhdestvensky and the RPO, and Slatkin and the Philharmonia Orchestra. The latter demonstrates both of Elgar's finales and here they are, should you have never heard the first one ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zv3qg10j760&list=RDzv3qg10j760&start_radio=1

Plenty there to dip into, with Elgar and some "foreign accents"!

[Bryn]

Thanks RichardB for the list of non-British "Planets" on YouTube. It makes me wonder if the "Enigma Variations" might be the principal follow-up when it comes to the popularity of major English orchestral works being played outside the UK. Once again, there are some first-rate 'live' TV transmissions on YouTube, starting with a Dutch orchestra under a Russian conductor giving a performance which received a standing ovation from the Amsterdam Concertgebouw audience ...

Netherlands Radio Philharmonic conducted by Stanislav Kochanovsky ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jz6mncwwaeY

Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Jacek Kaspszyk ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vLNLvcBmoqo&t=62s

Mannheimer Philharmoniker conducted by Boian Videnoff ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bkCEKD_Hhg

St. Petersburg Philharmonic conducted by Yuri Temirkanov ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lM8l7XoVb1k

Kanagawa Philharmonic, Yokohama, conducted by Kahchun Wong ... Title etc. in Japanese! ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXlWxR8OAiE&t=40s

Perm Opera and Ballet Theatre Orchestra, Russia, conducted by Valeriy Platonov ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjk2nGVczdU

Antwerp Symphony Orchestra conducted by Mark Elder ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KxW8HW_hySo&t=85s

NHK Symphony Orchestra, Tokyo, conducted by Tadaaki Otaka ... Title etc. also in Japanese! ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1cLHS3OEUMw&t=27s

Texas Festival Orchestra conducted by JoAnn Falletta ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QB8cE0B11lE

I have not added Roger Norrington's Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra performance because - and I may be in a minority of one here - I can't stand the emaciated vibrato-less sound he gets his string players to adopt. Nor have I included British orchestras under non-British conductors, though you will find TV performances on YouTube with Bernstein and the BBCSO, Rozhdestvensky and the RPO, and Slatkin and the Philharmonia Orchestra. The latter demonstrates both of Elgar's finales and here they are, should you have never heard the first one ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zv3qg10j760&list=RDzv3qg10j760&start_radio=1

Plenty there to dip into, with Elgar and some "foreign accents"!

That's it; omit the best to the lot. Why lumber Elgar with Hollywood wibbly-wobblies?

[RichardB]

A recent concert here of British music consisted of Walton's Scapino Overture, Britten's Violin Concerto and VW's London Symphony. I was asked why I didn't go along and explained that the programme consisted of a piece I don't like by a composer I have a lot of time for, alongside two pieces by composers I can't stand, and that as far as I was concerned the whole programme was an opportunity missed. For example nobody in eastern Europe knows Tippett from a hole in the ground.

[TBuckley]

Tallis - Spem in Alium Workshop - Gloucester Cathedral - 2014

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ng6c1mNRdVo

This is the final workshop performance. As a listener I can't say I got much out of it. I think it was very much a day for the participants.

This workshop is being repeated at Gloucester later this month.

[seabright]

Some may recall a Record Review programme back in the 1980s in which Barry Fox played some "accidental stereo" recordings from the early electric 78rpm era. A Californian record collector had two copies of a Duke Ellington 78 which both sounded different. To cut a long story short, it was often the case that two turntables were used to record 78s, one being the safety back-up to the other. Usually the same microphone set-up fed each turntable but it seems that occasionally the engineers used a second microphone for the other turntable, placed a few feet away from the first. As Barry Fox explained, when 78s were pressed from each of the two masters and commercially released, it was possible through synchronizing the pair of them to achieve a quasi-stereo effect.

There was and still is a dispute about this, as some sources claimed that there was only ever one microphone input, the same to each turntable, and that the "stereo" effect was just two mono recordings being played together but slightly out-of-phase. It's best to hear the Barry Fox programme first, with examples from early recordings by Stokowski and Elgar, and then hear Ravel's "Bolero" from Koussevitsky and the Boston SO in 1930. That was recorded on three 78rpm sides, the second and third of which are in what the 'Pristine' CD describes as "accidental stereo." The difference when you get to side 2 is quite striking ...

Barry Fox on Radio 3 ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ozxezwy-cjM&t=1s

Koussevitzky and "Bolero" ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNRgU3rWwIE

[Serial_Apologist]

Some may recall a Record Review programme back in the 1980s in which Barry Fox played some "accidental stereo" recordings from the early electric 78rpm era. A Californian record collector had two copies of a Duke Ellington 78 which both sounded different. To cut a long story short, it was often the case that two turntables were used to record 78s, one being the safety back-up to the other. Usually the same microphone set-up fed each turntable but it seems that occasionally the engineers used a second microphone for the other turntable, placed a few feet away from the first. As Barry Fox explained, when 78s were pressed from each of the two masters and commercially released, it was possible through synchronizing the pair of them to achieve a quasi-stereo effect.

There was and still is a dispute about this, as some sources claimed that there was only ever one microphone input, the same to each turntable, and that the "stereo" effect was just two mono recordings being played together but slightly out-of-phase. It's best to hear the Barry Fox programme first, with examples from early recordings by Stokowski and Elgar, and then hear Ravel's "Bolero" from Koussevitsky and the Boston SO in 1930. That was recorded on three 78rpm sides, the second and third of which are in what the 'Pristine' CD describes as "accidental stereo." The difference when you get to side 2 is quite striking ...

Barry Fox on Radio 3 ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ozxezwy-cjM&t=1s

Koussevitzky and "Bolero" ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNRgU3rWwIE

"Turntablism"???

[seabright]

"Turntablism"???

Hmmm ... That's a word which rings a bell ... ;)

[smittims]

I'm an enthusiastic convert to 'accidental stereo' following Lani Spahr's set of CDs issued by the Elgar society. I've no doubt more than one microphine was used. Sometimes they seem to have aimed for depth rather than a 'left-right'spectrum, but surely the opening of 'O God our help in ages past' , recorded in Queen's Hall in 1928, presents a real stereo image.

I understand documentation of the reasons for making the recordings has not survived, but I wonder if Alan Blumlein had anything to do with it. He worked for HMV at that time and pioneered the moving-coil microphone, and later , in 1934, successfully demonstrated what he called 'binaural' recording.

I think the doubts about accidental stereo, voiced by Keith Hardwick and others, may stem from the fact that stereo playback wasn't possible at the time, as it depends on absolute synchronicity achievable only by a computer. So they may not have intended to make stereo recordings. The differently-miked matrices may have been intended to provide alternatively-balanced takes. I'm indebted to Lani Spahr's notes for this post.

[eighthobstruction]

....with directions taken from this weeks Ligeti CoTW....https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZ-2s3zs11Y


...https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQvMlDibfs8

[Bryn]

....with directions taken from this weeks Legeti CoTW....https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZ-2s3zs11Y


...https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQvMlDibfs8

Eh? Who's Legeti, and what is the relevance of the Youtube item linked to? I should add that I have not yet caught up with today's CotW.