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

[LeMartinPecheur]

I listened to the complete Pregardien recording this morning on R3, an interlude of beauty on a dreary wet Bank Holiday. It is certainly very good - I don't think I've ever heard the horn epilogue sound so beautiful. I'd rush to a live performance by these forces, but I wouldn't buy the recording simply because of the language problems, minor as they are. Naming no names, I've heard English singers distort the vowels almost as much as Pregardien does, but I wouldn't be buying their recordings (if they'd made them), either.

Was I hearing things (quite possible ) or did he really pronounce the L in 'embalmer', in the final Sonnet?

It was 'bOrrowing like a mole' that got me. Don't think it was my cloth ears: pretty sure the same bit was played in BaL and it made me sit up then!

[Norfolk Born]

I heard it this morning - excellent recording, orchestral playing and a fine horn soloist, but I found Pregardien's singing elegant and refined but lacking passion and drama. I still rate Tear/Civil/NorthernSinfonia/Marriner above all others.

[Peter Katin]

Mary and Draco. You have touched on what has been to me a great problem with listening (and on accasion performing) Britten's tenor repertory. Mary, on the one hand, feels Britten/Pears is the definitive yardstick by which all else has to be compared. Draco thinks we ought to 'wish away' the Pears sound and listen with fresh ears. Well I'm incapable of doing either, and as I think I've mentioned before, it is not until a completely new generation has been born that Britten's music of that ilk can be heard free of associations

Thanks for the Dudley Moore YouTube clip, by the way. Mrs Ardcarp and I have just been rolling around the floor in tears....despite having heard it at least 100 times before.

The whole programme is available, by the way.

[Flosshilde]

IWas I hearing things (quite possible ) or did he really pronounce the L in 'embalmer', in the final Sonnet?

Well, I've always pronounced it - shouldn't one? Is it like 'Ralph' - pronouncing it with the L marks the speaker as 'not quite our sort'?

I didn't think Pregardien's pronunciation was any worse than Pears or Bostridge - but then, as Mary says, I wouldn't buy any recordings by the latter (Pears is a different matter, because of his intimate association with Britten's music.) And the horn is sublime.

[Mary Chambers]

Well, I've always pronounced it - shouldn't one? Is it like 'Ralph' - pronouncing it with the L marks the speaker as 'not quite our sort'?

I've never heard anyone pronounce the L. My OED doesn't give it as an option, but I listened to one or two of those 'pronunciation guides' online, and it seems it is sounded in American.

[amateur51]

Well, I've always pronounced it - shouldn't one? Is it like 'Ralph' - pronouncing it with the L marks the speaker as 'not quite our sort'?

I didn't think Pregardien's pronunciation was any worse than Pears or Bostridge - but then, as Mary says, I wouldn't buy any recordings by the latter (Pears is a different matter, because of his intimate association with Britten's music.) And the horn is sublime.

That's because you're a person intent on clarity and consideration, Flossie, and by sounding the 'l', you make a distinction between 'balmy' and 'barmy'

[Flosshilde]

I've never heard anyone pronounce the L. My OED doesn't give it as an option, but I listened to one or two of those 'pronunciation guides' online, and it seems it is sounded in American.

Ah - perhaps the only time I've heard it was watching 'Six feet under'.

[ostuni]

I finally got around to listening to this BaL this afternoon. Absolutely stunning playing in the Prégardien/Lanzky-Otto/Vanska performance: I've never heard the Dirge so thrillingly (or accurately) played. And I enjoy Prégardien's un-English-tenor timbre, though I'll have to see how irritated I get by the pronunciation. I've downloaded the tracks from Amazon: 59p x 8 - not a bad price. And since I no longer have a Pears performance (I imprinted on Pears/Brain/Goossens on Eclipse in the late 60s), I downloaded that performance for 79p, which seems quite a bargain!

I'd never heard of Lanzky-Otto before: I imagined him as some bright new virtuoso - but it turns out that he's the grand old(ish) man of Scandinavian horn-playing, as was his father before him: see this IHS page.

[Alf-Prufrock]

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?

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

This BaL has been one of the most worthwhile in recent times, in that it has revealed an extremely good version that no-one would have expected.

[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-britten/sinfonietta-op.-1-vanska-tapiola-sinfonietta-pregardien/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!