BaL 28.05.11 - Britten: Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings 9.30 a.m.

[amateur51]

I too was quite impressed by what I heard of the Pregardien version (though I would still put Rolfe Johnson ahead). The slight non-Englishness I even found attractive. I looked at the river site with the intention of ordering a copy and found - £20 for a CD! No way. Has anyone seen a reasonable price anywhere, please?

http://www.sendit.com/cd/benjamin-br...n/8434717.html

[Alf-Prufrock]

Thanks, amateur, for your reference, but when I got there the item was sold out! No wonder! Lots of people must have been listening to this BAL!

[Norfolk Born]

It's £11.95 from Europadisc.

[ardcarp]

Just got back from a short hol to find this thread still running. Skimming through all the pages, it strikes me that this shows The Forum at its best...lively informed discussion, little or no gratuitous offence dished out, and a great love of the music shining through.

PS Heddle Nash was great in his day (who can hear VW's Serenade to Music without him?) but I suspect we'd find his vowels rather dated!

[verismissimo]

Heddle Nash's vowels somewhere between 1930s posh and Deptford!

[tom_960]

Incidentally, I didn't know that Alan Partridge had recorded the Serenade - A-Haa!

Yes indeed he has - and a Partridge in the hand is worth two in the Busch...

Seriously though, we didn't hear of any DVD versions of the Serenade. About 10 years ago BBC TV broadcast a film version recorded by Bostridge, with Sir Colin conducting, in - iirc - Blythburgh Church. Some very evocative and complementary photography too. Was it ever released as a DVD?

[Brassbandmaestro]

I would love to have the AR versio, as to the version as reccomended. You need English speaking artists for works like these.

[tom_960]

I would love to have the AR version, as to the version as recommended, you need English speaking artists for works like these.

I presume you mean ARJ - Anthony Rolfe Johnson? What do you mean by "works like these"? If the boot were on the other foot, would you similarly reject - for example - ARJ's recordings of German cycles such as Liederkreis? And perhaps someone should have told John Tom that you need German-speaking artists for roles like Wotan?

[johnb]

I've listened to the Pregardien recording and have no qualms at all about his pronunciation. In many respects the recording is outstanding and the horn soloist is superb. My one reservation about this version is the balance - Pregardien seems very recessed compared to the horn soloist and orchestra making the piece more of a horn concerto with vocal support. I realise that the balance is probably very similar to what one would actually hear in a live performance but in that situation the visual element would counter the 'recessed' tenor. Although I intensely dislike the exaggerated spotlighting of soloists (which so often happens in recordings) I do think that some delicate rebalancing in favour of the tenor would have been worthwhile.

Having said all that, I think it is a really stunning performance.