YouTube: the thread for interesting video links

[seabright]

Two musicians' deaths last week have caused a couple of brief "In Memoriam" tributes to appear on YouTube.

Carl Davis died on 3rd August aged 86 and here, from a 1991 German radio broadcast, he conducts David Matthews' orchestration of Tchaikovsky's "August" from 'The Seasons' ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msn2n8aAvmM

Bernard Keeffe died the following day aged 98 and his tribute features more Tchaikovsky, taken from a 1974 Radio 3 broadcast of Incidental Music to "The Snow Queen" ...

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

[smittims]

I'm glad to hear Bernard Keefe had a long life. I remember his broadcasts fondly.

[seabright]

CRQ Editions has come up with a "free download" release - 'In Memoriam' - of Bernard Keeffe conducting the Trinity College Orchestra, The works are Tchaikovsky's "Manfred" Symphony and Liszt's "Orpheo" and they come from a concert he gave in St. John's, Smith Square, in 1986. Nice of CRQ to make it a freebie ...

https://crqeditions.bandcamp.com/album/crq-576-in-memoriam-bernard-keeffe-1925-2023-tchaikovsky-liszt-free-stream-download

[seabright]

More "Early Stereo" from the Bells Labs in the 1930s. They were experimenting with "Wide Range" mono and stereo by recording numerous sections of works played by the Philadelphia Orchestra under Stokowski. A complete performance of "Wotan's Farewell and Magic Fire Music" was assembled from assorted 'takes' recorded in two concerts given in 1932. Some of these experiments were issued on a couple of Bell Labs LPs in 1979, presumably 'limited editions,' and the joins in the recording are noticeable. Still, the general sound isn't at all bad, compared to what was coming off old 78s at the time ...

[smittims]

Thanks for posting this. I listened with interest, as old recordings and their developent have been a lifelong occupation for me. There are also CD's of the first electrical orchestral recordings, also made by Stokowski.

Can anyone explain in layman's terms the difference between the Bell system and the 'binaural' stereo developed by Alan Blumlein, which, so I've understood , was the basis of the stereo systems perfected inthe 1950s by Roy Wallace fr Decca and John Pfeiffer For RCA Victor?

[gradus]

How on earth did they get such vivid spacious sounds, were they directly cut on to twin wax masters as it was some years before the advent of magnetic tape recording. .

[smittims]

I think they were recorded on film,and they hadn't the technology to cut them onto disc, hence stereo discs were not issued to the public until 1958. The same goes for the 'accidental stereo' HMV recorded as far back as 1928. It couldn't be played back in stereo until computers allowed absolute synchronicity.

[seabright]

For any Elgarians interested in non-British performances of his music, here is the 1st Symphony played in May by the West German Radio Orchestra under the French conductor Lionel Bringuier. He was standing in for Andrew Davis who is or was evidently suffering from ll health. In any event, the comments under this televised upload include "Wonderful," "Splendid" and "Superb" so click the link and see what you think! ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Irhzcsqr1rE

[gradus]

Tremendous performance, as fresh as paint from a fine orchestra.

[seabright]

Here's another splendid Elgar 1 - this time from Spain with the Basque National Orchestra conducted by Robert Trevino. YouTube is the only place you'll see performances like this, certainly not on BBC or ITV ... :) ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzu6G3Se3xs

[smittims]

I've said for years that if BBC1 played a classical symphony live at 7.30 every evening people would watch, talk about it, and start to tell one another that this snobby classical music had something after all. Such is the selling power of television.

[seabright]

More Elgar - This time the composer himself recording "Cockaigne" in 1933. It's probably been mentioned in here already but in the days of 78s, the engineers had two turntables running, one a safety back-up to the other. Each was fed by the same microphone but on a very few occasions, the engineer experimented with a different make of microphone feeding the second turntable. The two mikes were placed a few feet apart in the studio and 78s were issued from both masters. A couple of Californian record collectors discovered that when a pair of otherwise identical 78s, but which had different matrix numbers, were played and simultaneously synchronised, a stereo effect was achieved. It seems the engineers tried their microphone experiment on the 3rd of the three Elgar sides. It should be added that Keith Hardwick of EMI disputed these "stereo" claims and said the effect was achieved by playing two mono sides slightly out of phase. See what you think ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nd_0m4Zgb9w

Here is Barry Fox's 'Record Review' programme from the 1980s explaining all, with more 'accidental stereo' examples ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ozxezwy-cjM&t=2s

[smittims]

I'm a big fan of 'accidental stereo', and I strongly recommend Lani Spahr's 4-CD set released by SOMM: Elgar Remastered. The gem is a complete cello concerto , but the most vivid bit to convert the sceptic is ironically, the only recording of Elgar conducting anyone else's music, Croft's 'O God Our Help in Ages Past' in the Queen's Hall in 1928. I don't think anyone could deny that this is real stereo.

Sadlty we don't know exactly why they did it, as they couldn't reproduce the sound in stereo until digital technology allowed absolute alignment . But a clue I think lies in the employment of Alan Blumlein at HMV in those days, one of whose achievements being the moving-coil microphone , and who later invented Binaural sound (as he called it).

[Bryn]

[smittims]

Thanks, Bryn, that was interesting and thought-provoking. To anyone familiar with the reasoning behind Cage's 4'55" it will be no surprise.

Of course, silence has been used in music at least as far back as Purcell's Fairy Queen ('Hush, no more') and many works since have made it significant. I think of the trio of Schubert's string quintet and the first movement of Barraque's piano sonata. But I think that to say we 'hear' silence ' is a deliberate paradox. We notice silence, but what we hear is the quiet sounds we didn't hear while the previous sound was on.