What Classical Music Are You listening to Now? III

[smittims]

I'm catching up with last night's Rachmaninov double bill in 'Opera on 3'. Rachmaninov worked as an opera conductor for several years but his own stage works have never enjoyed much success live or on disc, so it's good to have two of them here. Good reliable performances so far.

[oliver sudden]

Someone should write a book about things that are on the disc but not in the score. One of my favourites was at the very end of the LPO HMV Music for Strings (Bliss) where in the final reverberation Sir Adrian can just be heard saying ' well, I think...'. Sadly, it was edited out of the CD transfer.

And there’s Goossens’ famous ‘bravo!’ at the end of Piatigorsky’s Schumann…

http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2005/Dec05/Piatigorsky_Concertos_8111069.htm

[smittims]

Thanks, I hadn't heard that one. Are you sure that's not Barbirolli?

[oliver sudden]

Thanks, I hadn't heard that one. Are you sure that's not Barbirolli?

If the bravo is from Barbirolli then Goossens seems to have been happy to take the rap (and Piatigorsky to join the conspiracy)! I suppose it’s not completely out of the question but it seems unlikely…

[anorak]

Evelyn Tubb, The Earle His Viols - Canzon Del Principe (Divox 2001)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2yWyEEHrPAU

[oliver sudden]

Evelyn Tubb, The Earle His Viols - Canzon Del Principe (Divox 2001)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2yWyEEHrPAU

Splendid. Do you also know their disc ‘La tavola cromatica’?

[anorak]

Splendid. Do you also know their disc ‘La tavola cromatica’?

Pleased to hear that you also like this somewhat obscure music. And, yes, I do know 'La Tavola Cromatica'. I have a bunch of discs exploring this early 1600s Italian music for viols and voices. Very atmospheric.

[smittims]

Rachmaninov , Francesca da Rimini, from Saturday night's 'Opera on 3'.

I hadn't heard this opera for about fifty years. I treasured a reel-to-reel tape of Ted Downes conducting it, with, needless to say, the BBC Northern Symphony Orchestra, and sung in English. In those days there was no available recording in the UK, until HMV Melodiya released a Russian recording. It was a nostalgic pleasure to hear the work again, and what superb orchestration. . .

[anorak]

Gallicantus - Robert White: Hymns, Psalms & Lamentations (Signum 2009)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MafVg8KXvGc

[Barbirollians]

La Mer - CSO/Reiner - gorgeously played but sounds much more like a sunny sparkly day on the Adriatic than the English Channel.

[smittims]

good point! Try Munch instead. The sleeve of an American LP of 'Four Sea Interludes ' made it look as if Aldeburgh was in the Caribbean. Thankfully the performance ( Sir Adrian Boult in one of his few Britten recordings) was safely traditional.

I wasnt so happy with Karajan in Symphony of Psalms. Oh dear, Herbert, I loved you , but was this really your piece? Back to Markevitch, Ansermet or Stravinsky in the work's first recording with a choir of Russian exiles.

[richardfinegold]

La Mer - CSO/Reiner - gorgeously played but sounds much more like a sunny sparkly day on the Adriatic than the English Channel.

Do the French refer to that body of water as the “English “ channel?

[Barbirollians]

Do the French refer to that body of water as the “English “ channel?

La Manche

[silvestrione]

good point! Try Munch instead. The sleeve of an American LP of 'Four Sea Interludes ' made it look as if Aldeburgh was in the Caribbean. Thankfully the performance ( Sir Adrian Boult in one of his few Britten recordings) was safely traditional.

I wasnt so happy with Karajan in Symphony of Psalms. Oh dear, Herbert, I loved you , but was this really your piece? Back to Markevitch, Ansermet or Stravinsky in the work's first recording with a choir of Russian exiles.

I have that Karajan disc for the fine performance of the Symphony in C, but have never quite dared to put on the Psalms, my instinct telling me it just couldn't be a HvK piece!

[Stanfordian]

Handel
Concerti Grossi, Op. 3 (1734)
No's 1–6, HWV 312-317
Berliner Barock Solisten / Reinhard Goebel
Recorded 2019, Jesus-Christus-Kirche, Dahlem, Berlin
Hänssler Classic, CD

‘Severn Meadows’ – Songs by Ivor Gurney
Paul Agnew (tenor) & Julius Drake (piano)
Recorded 2000 Henry Wood Hall, London
Hyperion, CD