Originally posted by HighlandDougie
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Thank you very much to the posters who have unearthed the various CD transfers of the Handley recording. I have shelled out for the very cheap Icon set, despite already having nearly everything therein except for the Russian disc. I'm prepared for disappointment with the sound of the Tippett, but as it was never that great on CFP LP, I don't expect miracles. -
The early piece I'd really love to hear is his working-class ballad opera Robin Hood, which everybody involved with at the time said was fabulous, according to Oliver Soden's biography. We get some hints of it in the Prince Charles suite, and there are constant rumours of a recorded revival ... but somehow it never happens!Originally posted by RichardB View PostComment
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Hard to find the right word(s) to describe the sound, but it's not very refined.Originally posted by HighlandDougie View Post
I liked the performance though, and where it scored (some others falling out of the shopping basket at this point) is in the fact that near the end of the third movement (4 bars after figure 40; repeated 6 bars after figure 43) the 'poco' is heeded in the 'poco allargando' before the sweeping 'a tempo' section. Some (even Tippett himself is not entirely immune in his SCO recording) accelerate in the preceding bars, where only a 'poco a poco cresc' is marked, and then slam the brakes on!
Great fun to follow with the score: the division between orchestras is not always what you might expect.Comment
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I thought I’d say a few words about John Farrer’s 1995 performance of the Double Concerto with the English Sinfonia on Carlton Classics, as it’s not so well-known and well worth hearing.
English Sinfonia, c. John Farrer
Concerto for Double String Orchestra; coupled with Britten: Simple Symphony Op.4, Lachrymae Op.47a, Prelude and Fugue Op.29
(Carlton Classics 30366 00542)
rec. Walthamstow Town Hall, November 1995
The almost-forgotten John Farrer had a brief flirtation with fame in the early 1990s, making a series of well-regarded discs for Carlton Classics (prod. John Boyden) with the LPO and RPO; and his three discs of English String Music with the English Sinfonia have certainly stood the test of time. Such unfussy, clear and precise readings can seem matter of fact at first, but I’ve found myself returning to all three discs with enhanced pleasure, when others with more obvious ‘personality’ cease to interest me. In particular his recordings of John Ireland – notably the superb Concertino Pastorale – are the best I know, outpointing Hickox and Boult.
The Tippett Concerto for Double String Orchestra exhibits Farrer’s ‘no fuss, no frills’ conducting style at its most typical. Everything is immaculate and well-drilled, with no over-egged dynamics, and the two orchestras’ separation is evident without being obtrusive – the recording quality is much better than Handley’s for CfP.
The first movement has perfect logic, without any sense of padding: even if it isn’t quite so numinous as the Barshai Bath recording, it is (for me) better played. Most interesting is the slow movement, less ‘English pastoral’ and more ‘American spiritual’, which picks up on an outgoing element to this wonderful music that other conductors miss.
If the last movement doesn’t quite have the rhythmic spring which Handley or Marriner bring to it, Farrer judges that awkward poco allargando transition to the expansive, sweeping a tempo at the climax nicely, and the orchestra plays wonderfully well for him throughout.
For the curious, here is a link to Farrer’s discography, on his own website:
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The Farrer recording seems not to be available to stream (at least for me on Deezer), but there's a used copy of one of its incarnations here, though rather too expensive for me to consider buying it, despite the attractive couplings:
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The Farrer recording of the Concerto is on You Tube - three separate entries:
1st movement
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWZJLuLeiF4
2nd movement
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V61H01KA5j0
3rd movement
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMF9vVpMITA
Listening, I can understand the appeal of this recording. Other items from the CD seem to be there (I've yet to search to see if they are complete). I'm thankful I'm not allergic to recordings that are anything but CD quality, lossless. Of course, ahem, its possible to record from Y Tube and aggregate the movements....
Carlton Classics - one of those labels lost in the mists of time.Comment
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Thank you: that's a Sanctuary Classics reissue I'd not come across, putting the two Tippetts and some of the RVW works from his three Carlton Classics discs together. The Little Music hails from another Carlton disc, notable for a nicely poised version of Lennox Berkeley's Serenade amongst more familiar fare by Holst and Britten. These Farrer / English Sinfonia tracks have certainly done the rounds!Originally posted by Pulcinella View PostComment
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Not quite lost: https://www.qobuz.com/gb-en/album/br.../wfhu881rbyfdbOriginally posted by Cockney Sparrow View PostComment
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It took some 'creative searching' to find it on QOBUZ, too. I do not really like their search engine's operation, much. It throws up way too many items which do not immediately connect with any of the search terms while ignoring some for which those search terms fit like a glove.Originally posted by Pulcinella View PostComment
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