A maggot for the Schubert 'Great' C Major symphony...

[pastoralguy]

I'm attempting to use the word 'maggot' in its arcane sense of 'obsession' or 'ear worm'. (Much as I love John Fowles' writing this was one novel I could never get on with).


I went to hear this piece at the Edinburgh Festival last week with Mrs. PG who didn't know it but, by goodness, she knows it now! I've been unable to stop playing it and have doing my own wee BaL on it. Does anyone have strong feelings or experiences with it? What has been your stand out performance/ recording? When did you first discover it?

Thanks in advance for any contributions.

[Richard Tarleton]

I'm attempting to use the word 'maggot' in its arcane sense of 'obsession' or 'ear worm'. (Much as I love John Fowles' writing this was one novel I could never get on with).


I went to hear this piece at the Edinburgh Festival last week with Mrs. PG who didn't know it but, by goodness, she knows it now! I've been unable to stop playing it and have doing my own wee BaL on it. Does anyone have strong feelings or experiences with it? What has been your stand out performance/ recording? When did you first discover it?

Thanks in advance for any contributions.

I absolutely love it. First live performance Hans Schmidt-Isserstedt and the NPO, 1972. First (and for many years only) recording, Bruno Walter and the Columbia SO - stately Brucknerian tempi . Then came Norrington - opposite extreme - but I have finally settled on Fischer/Budapest, though I still love the Walter. I've a Szell-Cleveland LP which i haven't heard in ages.

I gather string players take a different view.

Did you finish the Fowles? I re-read it recently. Goes completely bonkers at the end.

[BBMmk2]

Sir Charles Mackerras/Philharmonia, and sir Georg Solti VPO.

[salymap]

I've loved it for about 65 years and heard many performances. It sometimes reminds me of someone walking along a path in beautiful hilly country.

Repeats were apt to be dropped by one or two of the conductors inmy day though. I prefer it intact.

Off topic,I never knew what 'maggot' meant in this sense,thanks. Way back Iremember a piece called 'The Hammersmith Maggot'. Does anyone know it ?

[Petrushka]

One of the greatest symphonies but I started a thread a while ago on the old BBC boards bemoaning the lack of a truly outstanding recording of it. That was long before I heard the Boult recording which has since become the version I've always heard in my head. Looking forward to hearing Haitink's Concertgebouw recording in the Philips Years set due out soon.

The French Lieutenant's Woman is my favourite John Fowles novel. I read it long before the film (which I've no intention of seeing) and it blew my mind.

[Alison]

Miss Donnithorne's Maggot also comes to mind.

First encounter with Schubert 9 was my dad's off air recording of BBCSO/Haitink from the 1977 Proms.

I was thrilled to hear BH conduct the work with the LSO last summer. The end of the first movement was a special memory from that performance, a breathtaking symphonic arrival. (My Philips years box dispatched today!)

[gurnemanz]

One of the greatest symphonies but I started a thread a while ago on the old BBC boards bemoaning the lack of a truly outstanding recording of it. That was long before I heard the Boult recording which has since become the version I've always heard in my head. Looking forward to hearing Haitink's Concertgebouw recording in the Philips Years set due out soon.

The thread you started is on the archive.
Another one here. I echoed Madame Suggia's Krips!, Krips!, Krips! ... and still do.
I first heard this work over 40 years ago rather unforgettably on a car radio going across the Alps.

[Petrushka]

Miss Donnithorne's Maggot also comes to mind.

First encounter with Schubert 9 was my dad's off air recording of BBCSO/Haitink from the 1977 Proms.

I was thrilled to hear BH conduct the work with the LSO last summer. The end of the first movement was a special memory from that performance, a breathtaking symphonic arrival. (My Philips years box dispatched today!)

I remember listening to that 1977 Prom (courtesy of R3) very well indeed. A terrific performance and so was a 1987 Barbican account with the same forces given, if memory serves, on the very same day as Haitink's move to the Royal Opera House was announced.

[pastoralguy]

Many thanks for the replies. No, I never did finish 'A Maggot' Richard, but it was a long time ago so I should give it another go now I'm older ( but not necessarily wiser!). My favourite John Fowles is 'The Magus'. A book that I found at exactly the right time in my life!

My favourite 'Great' C Major is probably the Boult/LPO one. (Did Boult not arrive at Abbey Road on a bus for this session?!). However, I've been listening to other versions and they're all pretty good. I've yet to find a truly bad recording of it.

[Hornspieler]

I'm attempting to use the word 'maggot' in its arcane sense of 'obsession' or 'ear worm'. (Much as I love John Fowles' writing this was one novel I could never get on with).


I went to hear this piece at the Edinburgh Festival last week with Mrs. PG who didn't know it but, by goodness, she knows it now! I've been unable to stop playing it and have doing my own wee BaL on it. Does anyone have strong feelings or experiences with it? What has been your stand out performance/ recording? When did you first discover it?

Thanks in advance for any contributions.

The first ever symphony that I heard and saw played by a professional orchestra. It was the inaugural concert by the re-formed Bournemouth Municipal Orchestra under their new conductor, Rudolf Schwarz. I was only fifteen at the time.

It was also the final work in the last symphony that I played under Rudolf Schwarz in 1965.

The Great C major had a special significance for Schwarz and it has had for me ever since. As that fine Horn teacher Frantisec Szolc said to me after that concert in BRNO: " ...I thought the orchestra played very good the symphony and the conductor gave the performance his blessing"

That sums it up for me. I'm really not interested in hearing it conducted by anyone else.

HS

[formbyman]

I first heard the Schubert 9th with Furtwanglers recording over 50 years ago,and it is the one I return to,although I also have a high regard for the Krips recording.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I first heard the Schubert 9th with Furtwanglers recording over 50 years ago,and it is the one I return to,although I also have a high regard for the Krips recording.

Two splendid recordings, formbyman. The Furtwangler is my preferred "big band" Schubert "9th". Roy Goodman and the Hanover Band give an "equal but opposite" experience in the work, and they are my preferred HIPP recordings ('tho' I still haven't got the Minkowski set yet).

"Bad" recording? Karajan's with the BPO on DG is interesting to hear a great Musician completely failing to "get" a Musical masterpiece (after he re-recorded it - more successfully - as part of a complete Schubert Symphony cycle on EMI, he declared that he'd never touch it again, saying that the work had "defeaten" him). Loughran with the Hallé, too, is like watching someone trying to swim through treacle - suddenly to catch fire in the Coda of the Finale!

[cloughie]

The thread you started is on the archive.
Another one here. I echoed Madame Suggia's Krips!, Krips!, Krips! ... and still do.
I first heard this work over 40 years ago rather unforgettably on a car radio going across the Alps.

I agree Krips in either the CAO or the LSO stereo remake. I also like Furtwangler, Loughran, Abbado and thinking about it many others. I commented on the link about the unavailability of the Loughran - I was george salty then - the Loughran situation hasn't altered in 4 years - perhaps it never will.

[Alain Maréchal]

The Great C major had a special significance for Schwarz and it has had for me ever since. As that fine Horn teacher Frantisec Szolc said to me after that concert in BRNO: " ...I thought the orchestra played very good the symphony and the conductor gave the performance his blessing"


HS

I don't recall seeing Schwarz conduct that, but I did see him conduct many times over the years, and 'giving his blessing' seemed to be the visual effect. I know he had physical problems which inhibited his movement, so assume he must have done all the work at rehearsals, because they certainly were performances, not run-throughs.

I tend to the Boult faction on record. Also I agree that HvK missed the point entirely (by trying to make points) in his DG recording.

I'll mention Mr Fortune's Maggot by Sylvia Townsend Warner.

[makropulos]

I've a lot of Schubert "Greats" but particularly like Mackerras/SCO (modern instruments, on Telarc), Mackerras OAE (old instruments, on Virgin), and Bernstein/Concertgebouw (DG), a tremendous performance that's not as well known as it deserves to be. A different Bernstein performance, with the Bavarian Radio SO is on DVD and that, too, is pretty splendid. Another DVD with Karl Böhm with the Vienna Phil and has some tremendous moments (the whole thing is on youtube for anyone who is interested).
.
Oh dear, this is getting too long, but I have to agree with enthusiasts for Boult's EMI recording (and/or one of his live performances). Bruno Walter has already been mentioned too - and he's fantastic in this work - but his New York PO version is well worth finding as well as the later Columbia SO disc.

Haitink's Concertgebouw version has not - I think - had an international CD release (maybe it appeared in Japan) but it is included in the new "Haitink: The Philips Years" box which is turning out to be something of a treasure trove.