What Classical Music Are You listening to Now? IV

[smittims]

I don't know Jeremy Dibble's book. I go back to Christopher Palmer's Delius: Portrait of a Cosmopolitan ( Duckworth) which was a revelation for me when it came out in , I think, 1976.

I agree Handley's 'Summer Garden' is superb. I saw him do it in the Free Trade Hall,and also Eventyr, around the time of his Eminence Lp. He persuaded the Halle to go to the extra expense of hiring a Sarrusaphone for the later work: it makes a difference. .

[Roger Webb]

I don't know Jeremy Dibble's book. I go back to Christopher Palmer's Delius: Portrait of a Cosmopolitan ( Duckworth) which was a revelation for me when it came out in , I think, 1976.

I agree Handley's 'Summer Garden' is superb. I saw him do it in the Free Trade Hall,and also Eventyr, around the time of his Eminence Lp. He persuaded the Halle to go to the extra expense of hiring a Sarrusaphone for the later work: it makes a difference. .

I agree about Christopher Palmer's book...I think I have just about every Delius biography written, from Delius's sister Clare's remeniscences, through Heseltine's, and of course Beecham, but for me, most fascinating are Lionel Carley's two volumes of letters.

Did Handley get the orchestra to shout in the right places in Eventyr?!....I haven't ever heard this work live.....I wonder if the Hallé had ever done it previously with Sir John?

[Stanfordian]

Mozart
Violin Concerto No. 2 in D major, K.211
Violin Concerto No. 5 in A major ‘Turkish’, K.219
Sinfonia Concertante for violin, viola & orchestra in E flat major, K.364
Frank Peter Zimmermann (violin)
Antione Taaamesit (viola)
Kammerorchester des Symphonieorchesters des Bayerischen Rundfunks /Radoslaw Szulc (leader)
Recorded 2015 Herkulessaal, Munich
Hänssler Classic, CD

[smittims]

As I recall, Tod had difficulty getting the Halle players to shout 'wildly' enough. It was more of a 'huh!'

I think the only answer is to get some enthusiastic male singers .

[Roger Webb]

As I recall, Tod had difficulty getting the Halle players to shout 'wildly' enough. It was more of a 'huh!'

I think the only answer is to get some enthusiastic male singers .

Thinking that a Scandinavian touch with these shouts might be what's needed I compared Aarhus Symphony Orch/Bo Holten with Bergen Phil./Andrew Davis. The Bergen is surprisingly tame, and rather too far back in the mix..whereas the Aarhus is very good, and the second slightly more hysterical - just what's wanted! In fact I love these Danacord CDs with their 'national' themes.

[pastoralguy]

Thinking that a Scandinavian touch with these shouts might be what's needed I compared Aarhus Symphony Orch/Bo Holten with Bergen Phil./Andrew Davis. The Bergen is surprisingly tame, and rather too far back in the mix..whereas the Aarhus is very good, and the second slightly more hysterical - just what's wanted! In fact I love these Danacord CDs with their 'national' themes.

Bo is best! I met his daughter today at the Edinburgh Book Festival where she was a participant in a symposium on feminism and finance. She signed my copy of her book and was absolutely delighted when I said that I was her father’s greatest fan!

[Master Jacques]

Delius: In a Summer Garden , the London Symphony Orchestra, Geoffrey Toye.

Thoughts of the upcoming Delius Tv programmes moved me to dig out this the work's first recording, made in 1928, some years before Sir Thomas Beecham's first version. Toiye, now a forgotten figure, made four Deluis recordings . He was known as a light music composer and conducted the premiere of Vaughan Williams' London Symphony in 1914.

Not quite forgotten, smittims. Of course his overture to Ruddigore (which has been the standard one for a century, despite its inauthenticity and the existence of Sullivan's understated original) is one thing, but The Haunted Ballroom is quite another: a really gorgeous - and yes, haunting - ballet score, which can be heard complete on one of my favourite CD albums. The work was much-performed in its time, and I'm replaying it now: there's much more to the piece than that familiar 'light music' waltz.

Tribute to Madam
Ballets by Bliss (Checkmate), Lambert/Boyce (The Prospect Before Us), Gordon (The Rake's Progress) and Toye (The Haunted Ballroom).
Royal Ballet Sinfonia, c. Barry Wordsworth
(ASV White Line 2-CD CDWLS255)

[Stanfordian]

Anna Netrebko – ‘Russian Album’
Tchaikovsky
Excerpts from Iolanta & Eugene Onegin. Pimpinella Florentine Song from Romance Op. 38/6
Rimsky-Korsakov
Excerpts from The Tale of Tsar Saltan, The Snow Maiden, The Tsar’s Bride
Glinka
Cavatina and Rondo from A Life for the Tsar
Prokofiev
Excerpt from War and Peace
Rachmaninov
Excerpts from Francesca da Rimini
Anna Netrebko (soprano)
with Zlata Bulycheva (mezzo), Dmitry Voropaev (tenor), Alexander Morozov (bass-baritone), Ilya Bannik (bass)
Chorus and Orchestra of the Mariinsky Theatre (Kirov) / Valery Gergiev
Recorded 2005/06 Mariinsky Theatre, St. Petersburg
Deutsche Grammophon, CD

Tchaikovsky
String Quartet No. 1, Op. 11
String Quartet No. 2, Op. 22
Borodin Quartet
Recorded 1993 Teldec Studios, Berlin & Snape Maltings Concert Hall, Suffolk
Warner Classics / Elatus, CD

[smittims]

Well, of course, I meant 'forgotten' to other than connoisseurs! I was pleased to see Toye's Haunted Ballroom on a Hyperion CD around 1995 with the late Ronald Corp conducting.

Anna Netrebko's disc of Tchaikovsky and Rimsky songs with Daniel Barenboim was very rewarding for me; I didn't even know they knew each other.

I've just been enjoying Beethoven's Violin Concerto with Zino Francescatti andthe Philadelphia Orchestra and Eugene Ormandy, Columbia 33CX 1011. Probably nowhere near Beethoven's metronome markings but instead we get all the beauty, elegance and nobility of this immortal work.

[Master Jacques]

Well, of course, I meant 'forgotten' to other than connoisseurs! I was pleased to see Toye's Haunted Ballroom on a Hyperion CD around 1995 with the late Ronald Corp conducting.

Though hab' acht!, that is only the ubiquitous waltz. The complete ballet is more Ravel-like in feel, about 30 minutes long, and even has a wordless offstage chorus. It's a treat, if you haven't heard it. Toye was certainly an important figure in his day, in the opera and ballet world. The oft-repeated statement that he was the choreographer and director Wendy Toye's uncle is not true, by the way. She knew him well, but they were not related.

[Petrushka]

Messiaen: Turangalila Symphony
Yuja Wang (piano), Cecile Lartigau (ondes Martenot)
Boston Symphony Orchestra
Andris Nelsons

This is a terrific recording and performance from all concerned. The sound is very impressive indeed and bass drum fans will be well pleased. Anyone who feared that Yuja Wang would be given undue prominence can rest easy as the piano is superbly integrated within the orchestral texture. The ondes Martenot is also very well balanced and better than on most recordings. Super disc!

[smittims]

Thanks, Master Jaques. I will look out ofr the complete Haunted Ballroom.

Meanwhile

Haydn : Symphony no.86. The Berlin Philhamonic, Herbert von Karajan.

I found I don't know this work very well, on renewing my acquantance with the 'Paris' symphonies of which this is the penultimate one. venby haydn; standards the opening, and the slow movement, are exceptionally beautiful. Herbert's set of the symphonies was particularly praised by HC Robbins Landon.

[Roger Webb]

Holst conducted by his daughter Imogen, SRCS 34 Fugal Concerto for flute, oboe and strings, a lovely 'neo-classical' work....in fact this could just be the first of the genre!....although Holst wouldn't have categorised it thus!

Below Imogen Holst's own copy of this LP, signed by her, which I found in her house in Aldeburgh where we stayed earlier in the year - the cabinet on which I propped it is her father's music cabinet from St. Paul's School where he taught and Imogen attended.

[Stanfordian]

Britten – ‘War Requiem’
Emily Magee (soprano); Mark Padmore (tenor); Christian Gerhaher (baritone)
Tölzer Knabenchor;
Chor und Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks / Mariss Jansons
Recorded live 2013, Philharmonie, Munich
BR Klassik, CD
I attended one of these recorded Munich concerts. A wonderful performance under Jansons.

Joseph Holbrooke
String Quartet No. 1 ‘Fantasie Quartet’ in D minor, Op. 17b
String Quartet No. 2 ‘War Impressions, (Belgium 1915; Russia-1915), Op. 58a
Song of the Bottle (from Folk Song Suite No. 2, Op. 72/2)
Eileen Shona for clarinet & string quartet
‘The Last Rose of Summer’ for string quartet (from Folk Song Suite No. 1), Op. 71/2
‘Mavourneen Deelish’ for string quartet (from Folk Song Suite No. 1), Op. 71/4
Clarinet Quintet No. 2 in G, ‘Ligeia’, Op. 27
The Rasumovsky Quartet
Richards Hosford (clarinet)
Recorded 2002, Great Hall, Bancroft's School, Woodford, Essex
Dutton Epoch, CD

[richardfinegold]

Delius music hasn’t appealed to me, but I was listening to an Internet station while my wife was shopping at a tourist trap T while we are on a cruise ship. I believe the Washington State station is playing through the Beecham box . I couldn’t make out the name of the piece and site had no listing but perhaps I will stream some it when I get back