Launching the Portamento Restoration Society

[verismissimo]

Posted this morning by a close friend:

http://rogerneill.blogspot.co.uk/

[Dave2002]

Posted this morning by a close friend:

http://rogerneill.blogspot.co.uk/

I can't remember which one it was, but one of the recordings (either number 1 or number 2) of Elgar's symphonies by Charles Mackerras made a point of using portamento. I have it - excellent.

[aeolium]

I believe there is some delicate use of portamento by Grumiaux in the Grumiaux Trio's recording of Mozart's Divertimento K563 which was praised in the recent BaL.

I would certainly welcome its more frequent use, providing it was judiciously applied and not overdone.

[Alain Maréchal]

I'm not sure it became unfashionable in the 1920s. It was very much alive and well on Elgar's own recording of the Serenade for Strings (August 1933).

[verismissimo]

I'm not sure it became unfashionable in the 1920s. It was very much alive and well on Elgar's own recording of the Serenade for Strings (August 1933).

You're quite right, Alain. Busch too in the 30s. So when did it become unfashionable? In the 40s?

[Bryn]

You're quite right, Alain. Busch too in the 30s. So when did it become unfashionable? In the 40s?

Hmm. Seems to have been around the time that ubiquitous string vibrato messed up orchestral sound. Not surprisingly, Norrington assiduously observes the various modes of portamento indication in Mahler's scores when conducting performances from them.

[Pabmusic]

I can't remember which one it was, but one of the recordings (either number 1 or number 2) of Elgar's symphonies by Charles Mackerras made a point of using portamento. I have it - excellent.

Solti uses it very effectively in his recording of Elgar 1.

[JFLL]

.... So when did it become unfashionable? In the 40s?

I think it was used selectively even post-WWII. Norbert Brainin, the leader of the Amadeus Quartet, was famously (some would say notoriously) fond of it. I think it works sometimes in his performances, particularly in the more ‘Viennese’ parts of Mozart and Schubert.

[Bryn]

Gauk employed portamento to great effect in the 2nd scherzo of Shostakovich's 8th Symphony. I really miss it in other performances of the work.

[MrGongGong]

Get Theremin
Play Theremin
Swooooop

[Bryn]

Get Theremin
Play Theremin
Swooooop

Or an Ondes Martenot's ribbon will do nicely.

[MrGongGong]

Or an Ondes Martenot's ribbon will do nicely.

Indeed
or even a Tannerin as used on Good Vibrations

Bring on Turangalila

[salymap]

I started going to orchestral concerts in 1947 and surely Yehudi Menuhin still used it sometimes. It was already unfashionable and we rudely called it 'swooping'.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Goebbels once said - "If you keep repeating a lie for long enough, it becomes the truth.

[Julien Sorel]

Goebbels once said - "If you keep repeating a lie for long enough, it becomes the truth.

Did he? http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Joseph_Goebbels

He did say:

Das haupt-sächlichste englische Führungsgeheimnis ist nun nicht so sehr in einer besonders hervorstechenden Intelligenz als vielmehr in einer manchmal geradezu penetrant wirkenden dummdreisten Dickfelligkeit zu finden. Die Engländer gehen nach dem Prinzip vor, wenn du lügst, dann lüge gründlich, und vor allem bleibe bei dem, was du gelogen hast! Sie bleiben also bei ihren Schwindeleien, selbst auf die Gefahr hin, sich damit lächerlich zu machen

The essential English leadership secret does not depend on particular intelligence. Rather, it depends on a remarkably stupid thick-headedness. The English follow the principle that when one lies, one should lie big, and stick to it. They keep up their lies, even at the risk of looking ridiculous. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Lie