Originally posted by smittims
View Post
-
The orchestra still exists, by the way… and you’ll never guess who their chief conductor was from 2006–2009. -
Oh I must give this one a try.Originally posted by Quarky View Post
I was in Stuttgart the other day for work and an ex-colleague who now works at SWR let me hear a recording from the other end of Pli selon pli’s performance history: a Paris performance from 1961. At that stage Don was still a piano solo, Improvisation I was still the chamber version, and Improvisation III was still the ‘mobile’ version (as it would remain until the 1980s). I wouldn’t want that to be the only version (the beginning of the the orchestral Don is as iconic as post-WWII modernism gets, and rightly so) but it’s enthralling to hear it this way, with everything gradually emerging from a single piano. I hope I can persuade them to release an early performance… (the 1962 Donaueschingen performance is floating around online, but Don was already orchestrated by that point).Comment
-
-
Arnold Bax – ‘Boult conducts Bax’
The Garden of Fand
Tintagel
November Woods
Northern Ballad No. 1
Mediterranean
London Philharmonic Orchestra / Sir Adrian Boult.
Recorded c. 1968-72
Lyrita, CD
Comment
-
That's a lovely CD. I remember the LPs' first appearance.Comment
-
On R3 this afternoon, the Ulster Orchestra playing Bax sym 6, not a work I know and I expected something suitably late romantic a la Tintagel - how wrong can you be. I had no idea that Malcolm Arnold was so influenced by Arnold B, utterly extraordinary.Comment
-
Serge Prokofiev. Lieutenant Kijé.
The Chicago Symphony Orchestra conducted by Claudio Abbado. DG.
A piece I’ve not listened to for a long time. It was a work that I remember seeing on television when Andre Previn’s Music Night was broadcast on BBC 2 back in 1977. That work and the Third Piano Concerto with Martha Argerich made a colossal impression on me. I was lucky enough to find both performances on dvd and it brought back wonderful memories although the Kijé performance had quite a few mistakes! Very uncharacteristic for this orchestra and conductor. Mind you, I would never have noticed in 1977!Comment
-
... many thanks for the nudge. I have had Pli selon pli (1969, 1981) on my shelves unloved for too long - this should start me off. But I am disappearing down a wormhole - I felt I should first immerse myself in Remémoration d'amis belges to get the background, and that has led to me getting deeper and more lost than I can say in Mallarmé : I must take a grip, stop trying to 'get' the poems, and just rather get lost in the Boulez...Originally posted by Quarky View Post
.Comment
-
Walton : Symphony no.1 The London Symphony Orchestra, Andre Previn.
I was fortunate in finding a very clean copy of the original Lp with its Decca publisity art dept. cover of Trafalgar square . It reminded me of the first time I saw and heard it, nearly sixty years ago at school, of all places .
It is of course a celebrated recording, maybe one of the most celebrated of any symphony. It was I think the fifth recording of a work that has been well served on disc, but it immediately put all its predecessors in the shade. Many will recall the tremendous 'bite'of the playing ithe first two movements, but today I was particularly impresssed by the finale.
An old friend attended the first, incomplete performance of the first three movements ,and he told me that he and his friends agreed that the finale , when it appeared, was a disappointment. It seemed to them that Walton had written his way out of a finale problem by relying on technique. I've never been able to agree with this view, and feel the finale is a triumphant and satisfying conclusion to the symphony .Comment
-
Can only speak for myself of course, but anything in life that I put off until I’d ‘got’ Mallarmé would stand a very good chance indeed of never happening.Originally posted by vinteuil View PostComment
-
... don't say that!Originally posted by oliver sudden View Post
I have just ordered a rather nice edition of Un Coup de Dés Jamais n'Abolira Le Hasard
Comment
-
The Boulez Box set 2013 has a booklet with commentary by Boulez himself::Originally posted by oliver sudden View Post
https://www.scribd.com/document/4960...WORKS%20PIERRE.
The commentary on Pli selon Pli runs to about 10 pages with quoted extracts of Mallarmé: I've set myself a task to read it, but since the Soprano part has only one or two discernible words, I guess it's not too important to know the poetry.Comment
-
... perhaps - but since the 'Pli selon pli' poem is about Bruges - and I'm going to Bruges next week - I felt I ought to get my head around it!Originally posted by Quarky View Post
.
Comment
-
J.S. Bach. The ‘Cello Suites.
Lynn Harrell, ‘cello.
I was lucky enough to pick these up in a charity shop this afternoon. They are the original cd release in a DECCA Fat Box. I think both the box and discs have seen a bit life put play perfectly. I have many recordings of these wonderful pieces but this one has alluded me so a pound well spent!Comment
-
It's just as good as you had said. Interesting note in the booklet from KZ on his urge to play chamber music when everyone wanted him to be playing solo recitals/concertos. Having said that, his Szymanowski disc for DG has given me much enjoyment. Anyway, a delight if you like well-played and stimulating Brahms.Originally posted by oliver sudden View PostComment
Comment