What Classical Music Are You listening to Now? IV

[smittims]

Holst: The Planets : The Los Angeles Philharmonic. Leopold Stokowski.

The recording has been criticised for the alterations to the scoring (not very intrusive, I thought) but I've always liked it, maybe for nostalgic reasons: it was the first Lp I bought, in 1966, on Music for Pleasure (12s6d) . They later reissued it in stereo and I was pleased to find a clean copy of the stereo version this morning in a charity shop.

[oliver sudden]

Holst: The Planets : The Los Angeles Philharmonic. Leopold Stokowski.

The recording has been criticised for the alterations to the scoring (not very intrusive, I thought)

Surely my learned friend isn’t going to defend that tam-tam roll throughout the last line of Mars?

[richardfinegold]

Beethoven Op 109-111 Wilhelm Kempff .

I listened o Richard Goode in the same music

[smittims]

I don't think Stokowski needs defending,oliver, least of all from me! He was a man,,take him for all in ll, we shall not see his like again. I don't mind the tam tam roll. I think it's less intrusive than Benajmin Britten's and Colin Davis' bass drum roll in the Gerontius prelude, which I think was a misreading of the score.

Another charity shop bargain was

Sir John Barbirolli: English String music. The Sinfonia of London. A 1962 HMV recording made at Kingsway Hall and Temple church.

This is of course a famous 'classic' , with its scarlet banners on the sleeve framing a large , full-width photo of the orchestra and conductor at the Elgar session. I think this may have been the first classical Lp to fetaure a session photo on the cover. Recording companies then were rather coy about revealing such details . I also noted that all the players look middle-aged, suggesting that on this occasion the orchestra was a hand-picked session band of players known to Sir John.

I doubt if any of them are stillalive today. How time flies.

[Barbirollians]

As much as I love that record - especially the Introduction and Allegro- I have to confess to preferring Boult's late Tallis Fantasia.

[Stanfordian]

Bryn Terfel – ‘Bad Boys’
‘Bad Boys’ characters from opera and musicals by Boito, Puccini, Donizetti, Verdi, Von Weber, Gershwin, Weill, Sullivan, Sondheim, Schönberg, Ponchielli, Rossini, Beethoven,
Gounod & Mozart
Bryn Terfel (bass-baritone)
Swedish Radio Choir & Symphony Orchestra / Paul Daniel
with Balcarras Crafoord (baritone) (Spoletta, Tosca) & Anne Sofie von Otter (mezzo-soprano) (Mrs Lovett, Sweeney Todd)
Recorded 2009, Berwald Concert Hall, Stockholm, Sweden
Deutsche Grammophon, CD

J.S. Bach
6 Sonatas for violin & harpsichord, BWV 1014-1019
Giuliano Carmagnola (baroque violin) & Andrea Marcon (harpsichord)
Recorded 2000 Sala del Conclave, Isola di San Giorgio, Venice
Sony Classical, 2 CDs
One of my very favourite CDs.

[richardfinegold]

Brahms Symphonies-Walter in New York, from the big Walter Sony box. Recorded in the mid fifties, on the cusp of stereo. Notable for being much more febrile than the stereo set recorded a few short years after

[gurnemanz]

Peter Schreier in his prime in Schumann's Dichterliebe und Liederkreis Op 24 accompanied by Norman Shelter. Not played for a while. Wondrous voice control, clarity of diction and communicative utterance.

[Pulcinella]

Released today

Walton: Sinfonia Concertante
Britten: Diversions for piano (left hand) and orchestra, Op. 21
Tippett: Piano Concerto

Clare Hammond
BBC Symphony Orchestra
George Vass

Anyone else listened yet?
Sounds very odd to me. Maybe SACD not transferred well, somehow?
Boxy orchestral sound, thumpy upfront piano, not at all well integrated.
Too cautious playing too in what I've heard so far.

Thank goodness for streaming: money saved by not buying this CD.

[smittims]

I often find the opening of the finale of the Walton Sinfonia Concertante going through my head, though I rarely listen to it and it's not by any means a favourite work. But it is blessed with striking memorable themes , putting to shame many a 20th century concerto in this respect. It really should be played more often, at the Proms for instance, where I'm sure it would go down well. .

[oliver sudden]

Peter Schreier in his prime in Schumann's Dichterliebe und Liederkreis Op 24 accompanied by Norman Shelter. Not played for a while. Wondrous voice control, clarity of diction and communicative utterance.

A wonderful disc. I’ve had it for more than 30 years. (Which I guess means I should check whether it still plays.)

[Pulcinella]

James MacMillan

Symphony No. 4 & Viola Concerto
Lawrence Power (viola)
BBC Philharmonic, Martyn Brabbins

Violin Concerto & Symphony No. 4
Vadim Repin (violin)
BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Donald Runnicles


Robert Carver

Missa Dum sacrum mysterium
Cappella Nova, Alan Tavener

[pastoralguy]

Haydn. Symphonies 35, 38, 39 & 59, ‘Fire’.

Trevor Pinnock directing The English Concert.

A six cd set I picked up for a pound today. Still in its plastic wrapping!

[oliver sudden]

Haydn. Symphonies 35, 38, 39 & 59, ‘Fire’.

Trevor Pinnock directing The English Concert.

A six cd set I picked up for a pound today. Still in its plastic wrapping!

If you don’t mind me saying so, those seem not to be very full CDs.

[smittims]

I imagine pastoralguy was referring to the ARCHIV produktion collectors edition 463 731 - 2 Haydn: The Sturm und Drang Symphonies. The full set contains 19 symphonies and the CD length varies form 50'30" to 71'09". To find it stillsealed for £1 is a bargain indeed.

I suspect some charity shops don't know how many discs are in a set and give them all the same price. And if they're having a clearance sale ('Everything for a pound') there may even be some rarities the value of which they are unaware . I've once or twice advised them to increase the price of something I think is worth a lot more than they're asking.

Of course, a lot of this requires expertise beyond what one can expect from a volunteer. I, for example , would be quite unable to distinguish a real pearl or diamond necklace, worth many thousands of pounds, from a cheap imitation.