YouTube: the thread for interesting video links

[seabright]

This one's for lovers of Vaughan Williams's music. As everyone knows, his "Serenade to Music" was written for 16 singers.and smallish orchestra. Here it is from the Hannover Proms in 2022 with the North German Radio Philharmonic conducted by Andrew Manze. The solo parts are sung by the various sections of a mammoth choir numbering about 400 voices! ... As someone remarks in the comments underneath, the assembled forces would be enough for Mahler's 8th. In any case, "a beautiful performance" pretty much sums up what the majority of the viewers think of it ...

[Pulcinella]

Following a comment on the Andrew Davis thread about Tippett's The Mask of Time at the Proms, I had no idea that the 1984 world premiere (conducted by the other Davis, Sir Colin) was on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8noOg8E1sI

[seabright]

I imagine we're all familiar enough with the "Enigma Variations" so it's particularly fascinating to come across a performance of the work from Germany under the baton of a French conductor. What makes this one particularly special is the virtuosity of the playing. Doubtless the burst of applause after "Troyte" would get 'shushed' in this country but a German audience, presumably less familiar with the work than the English, would feel less inhibited in reacting to the fireworks on display. Anyway, the comments under the video are unanimous in their praise of the performance and many will feel deservedly so. Here it is, played by the Frankfurt Radio Symphony, conductor Alain Antinoglu, from a concert given last December ...,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTa8fY1z3aA

[seabright]

Rob Cowan has given a great review in the July 'Gramophone' to a BBC Legends set of assorted Stokowski broadcasts. Since the maestro died in 1977, I imagine that anyone who saw him 'live' in concert must be well struck in years by now! ... Anyway, as ever, YouTube comes to the rescue with "free advertising" plugs and great "archived" material, as per these two links below. First, a video displaying the contents of the BBC Legends box and then a 1969 performance from Croydon with the LPO playing Schubert's "Unfinished" ...

[smittims]

It's good to see these recordings have been made available again. I have some of the BBC Legends Cds , and the Beethoven 5th and Schubert Unfinished videos have been available on DVD. The VW 8th I remember on a Carlton Classics CD inthe '90s. but the Britten is sutrely unique; I can't recall any other instance of Stokowski conducting music by this composer.

Apart from these they are mostly of works he recorded for RCA or Decca at around the same time. I recall especially some extra tam-tam strokes in Tchaikovsky's 6th at the Croydon Festival in , I think , 1972 (oneof his last concerts) , showing that he sometimes made little changes to the scoring in concert whch were not taken into the subseqiuent studio recording. That concert also included the first performance of Arthur Bliss' Metamorphic Variations, (billed at the time as 'Variations for Orchestra') . It was conducted by Vernon Handley, and I wonder of Bliss had hoped Stokowski would conduct it. As the work was also Bliss' swansong it must have been another exampke of 'Bliss' luck'.

[Dave2002]

Just found this video - which is really great stuff - Tippet Piano Concerto with MartinTirimo:

https://youtu.be/SN4sHhHIjWA?si=UskviZeLwaCZ4cbM

[smittims]

Thanks, I didn't know about that, though I know the Tirimo/Tippett CD of the work. I can't think how I missed that broadcast at the time. .

[seabright]

I wonder if anyone familiar with Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven" knows that the poem was once given a musical accompaniment. It was provided by a Russian composer called Arcady Dubensky and was given its first performance in 1932 by the Philadelphia Orchestra under Stokowski. The text was declaimed, somewhat histrionically, by a young baritone named Benjamin de Loache. Does anyone know if it's ever been performed here? ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJPpYkXpM2I&t=621s