What are you listening to right now? (VOL I)

In the car tonight:


Old School / MA Recordings

Peter Epstein, Sax
Scott Colley, bass
Peter Erskine, drums

Bach Double Violin Concerto: Arnold and Alma [his daughter] Rose with a chamber orchestra made up presumably of musicians from the Vienna Phil, which orchestra he lead till 1938. I love this performance. It is the opposite of high powered, and the slow movement is most lovely exposition of it that I have heard.

Probably too old fashioned for those truly wedded to historically informed performances, but the band must consist of no more than 8 or 10 strings beside the soloists, by the sound of it, and a piano renders the continuo most beautifully. Rose made very few recordings, but he a was an atonishing fiddler. He plays in the old style (re-Kreisler) with almost no vabrato except for a gentle (and very narrow) finger vibrato usually reseved for particular notes in the phrase. Portamento, known as the 'glide' oe 'slide' in Bach's and Handel's time in England, is all pervasive, and will indeed offend anyone not ready for it! I love it, in this context where becomes an itegral part of the expressive line, and not some slack device for changing possition and keeping in tune. Their intonation is astonishingly fine, and especially evident in such a pure rendition of the notes.

Fredrik

Holst

Lyric movement for Viola and Small Orchestra : Brook Green Suite : Nocturn for Strings : Fugal Concerto for Flute : Oboe and Strings : St Paul's Suite for Strings.

Cecil Aronowitz - viola
William Bennet - flute
Peter Graeme - oboe

English Chamber Orchestra

Imogen Holst


A little earlier

John Ireland

Piano Concerto in E flat.

Bach cello suites - Heinrich Schiff.

regards, Tam

quote:

Originally posted by Basil:
Holst

...: St Paul's Suite for Strings... English Chamber Orchestra, Imogen Holst.

Dear Basil,

Just as little pointless aside! The very last piece I played in public (and by then in amateur status again) was the Saint Pauls Suite. This was a Fringe concert in the Three Choirs Festival, in about 2002 in a nice little church in Worcestershire.

But there is another strange connection I have with that work. Between 1991 and 1993 I was the proud posessor of Gustav Holst's very fine double bass! He had bought it while teaching at Saint Pauls School, and when he returned to Cheltenham as an old man, he undertook a certain amount of teaching at Pates Grammar School. At his death in 1934 he left the bass in the school where it was used for educational perposes, until it fell into total dereliction. My second teacher prevented it being thrown out and eventually bought it for only £200. He bought it for me, and sold it on to me on the condition I had it well restored, for it was a very fine instrument. We had no idea how fine, for all that. I had it restored at a good luthier in Birmingham, and the first opperation was to take it to pieces without wrecking the structure of it. The theory was that it was a fine 19th. century German instrument. On closer inspection (while it was in about forty pieces) it proved to be an English (London made) instrument from probably 1780! That discovery meant a necessary adjustment to what would be done in the painfully slow and pains-taking restoration. Needless to say it became a very beautiful instrument.

I lost it in an accident, where a timp was wheeeled into the front while it lay on its side in its flexible case in the Stroud Subscription Rooms. I did not realise the damage, because I was elsewhere for a few minutes after the concert was over. When I got home I had a very bad feeling that something was wrong so I took it out of the padded bag, saw the damage and destrung it. I put the repair in hand and wondered how I could possibly afford the bill. I did not, and sold it. But I like to speculate two things about it. First that it was played in the Saint Pauls Suite under Holst's direction, and second that it might have played under Haydn during his visits to London. It was of such a high quality and clearly structurally an instrument of a very slightly earlier period that it would certainly have been owned by a player of quality, who might well have been in the very grand orchestra Salomon, the impressario, assembled for the historic performance of Haydn's new London Symphonies!

It was so delicate that the use of gut strings was mandatory to prevent the front colapsing under the strain. I wish I could post a picture, but I have no scanner at the moment.

I eventually commissioned a new bass that was actually a better instrument to play and had more projection as well, modelled on a Maggini of 1660, and also built with the weight of construction to carry gut, but never steel, strings.

Thanks for stiring up the memories from Fredrik

Thelonious Sphere Monk / Monk Alone: The Complete Columbia Solo Studio recordings 1962-1968 / Columbia/Legacy

In anticpation of an incredibly rare Pat Metheny concert in Adelaide this Wednesday coming

Dear Fredrik,

Thank you so much for that.

Anyone interested in Bruckner, his 7th symphony is being reviewed on R3 right now.

Now finished.

quote:

Originally posted by Basil:
Anyone interested in Bruckner, his 7th symphony is being reviewed on R3 right now.

However, since he omitted to mention where his recommendations stood in relation to 4 of my 5 recordings (which are hardly obscure: Jochum, Solti, Walter, Rattle) it made it a little harder to judge.

regards, Tam

I thought he was a little rough with Wand.

Dear Bsail and Tam,

In my whole life I have never given credence to a single record review! You both make a point about it that is only possible if you know the subject.

So how did I find out which musicians I liked best in my favourite repertoire. Firstly the school library, and secondly thirty five years of trial and error!. and of course talking to musical friends.

Not this weekend, but soon, I will post my entire (current) libraray of recordings. It is no accident that what is there and what is not is exactly as it is!

All the best from Fredrik

Dear Fredrik,

I agree, my own dislike of reviewers comes from working in a small, specialist classical record shop for seven years. We had a small group of regulars, and every Saturday they'd descend on the new stock and then go straight for the Penguin and Gramophone guides (we had about 15 years worth of both) to decide on which recordings to buy!

I mentioned this on one occasion, asking why they were in effect letting someone else choose their record collection, only to be greeted by an array of blank stares.

I realise how lucky I was to be in that situation, Monday to Friday the shop wasn't that busy so I had plenty of time to listen. A normal day would consist of setting the coffee machine up, going up-stairs to get an armful of records and spending the rest of the day deciding which I liked best.

One memorable fortnight I went through about 6 Mahler cycles! (Haitink, Karajan, Walter, Tennstedt, Kublik(sp?) and Bernstein)

So my choices may not be the most fashionable, or indeed the best, but at least they are MY choices.

As to the Bruckner, I spotted it on the R3 website, and decided to listen because I have a huge blindspot when it comes to Bruckner. I just cannot "get into" his music, I keep trying, maybe one day it will click...

Tam,

How would you rate the Heinrich Schiff cello suites? I'm familier with Schiff from his recording of the Shostakovitch cello concerti with Maxim Shostakovitch and the BRSO.

How I miss that record shop.

P.S

Ooh! Adam! Adam! I want to change my user name, I want to be "Bsail"!!!!


Sorry Fredrik, I couldn't resist that.

Dear Basil,

First the Bach - of the four sets I have they are my second favourite (to Rostropovich) and in some ways they are superior - I know some find Rostropovich to be somewhat mannered and for me Schiff comes a happy medium here between this and the technical competence but lack of soul in Ma.

As to reviews - I must say that I do use the Penguin guide rather heavily, but as a guide (especially in light of the one or two occasions on which it's seriously failed me - Rattle and his Beethoven is still an especially sore point ). However, most of the time I find it to be fairly sound and a good starting point if you don't know the work at all - I wouldn't have bought the Rostropovich or the Solomon Beethoven concertos bar for their Rosettes and I'm glad I did. I think that particularly when you are first building up a collection (and more so if you're not blessed to have a good classical shop to hand) it can be very useful. However, now I know a lot more about what sort of interpretations I like, I find I use it in a different way and colour their ratings with my preferences.

As far as the Gramophone goes, I find it getting increasingly useless - especially in regard to the lack of comparisons - for example, when they reviewed Abbado's Mahler 6 they didn't even mention my favourite reading (which they themselves had made an editors choice only a short while previously!).

As regards Bruckner - have you ever listened to either Solti or Jochum's readings. I sometimes find Bruckner a little repetitive and the way Solti dominates the music can be rather refreshing. Jochum has a thoroughly different approach but none the less highly satisfying (and as one of the great Brucknerians, with two complete cycles on disc, I am baffled that they didn't mention him ).

Fredrik - you're right - I haven't been correcting your spelling

regards, Tam

Alle teh bets fra Fredrik!

quote:

Originally posted by Fredrik_Fiske:
Not this weekend, but soon, I will post my entire (current) libraray of recordings. It is no accident that what is there and what is not is exactly as it is!

All the best from Fredrik

Dear Fredrik!
That's good news!

quote:

Not this weekend, but soon, I will post my entire (current) libraray of recordings. It is no accident that what is there and what is not is exactly as it is!

Looking forward to that, Fredrik.


Keep well,

Bsail!!!

Perfect for a Saturday morning:

17 Hippies - Play Guitar, perfect for a very snowy Saturday afternoon



earlier was Klangräume by Fraunhofer Saitenmusik, which was perfect for a Saturday morning

earlier was Klangräume by Fraunhofer Saitenmusik, which was perfect for a Saturday morning
[/QUOTE]

Hue, good morning.

I guess we found musical perfection for a Saturday morning almost simultaneously (O.K., eight minutes apart).

What is the Fraunhofer Saitenmusic?

Regards,

Haim

Haim,
In a recent review that I read I heard this described as chamber folk music. It is predominantly a combination of harp, dulcimer and double bass, with some recorder and guitar thrown in for good measure. The recording quality is superb and includes 18th century Danish dance & Bohemiam music, Handel and Gossec's "Tambourin."

Together with Llio Rhydderch's harp disc this makes for a very restful listening session. Although the music itself is reasonably complex it is very easy on the ear. As a caveat, I think that Stefan has this and was not so enamoured.

Cheers
Huw

quote:

Originally posted by Huwge:
Haim,
In a recent review that I read I heard this described as chamber folk music. It is predominantly a combination of harp, dulcimer and double bass, with some recorder and guitar thrown in for good measure. The recording quality is superb and includes 18th century Danish dance & Bohemiam music, Handel and Gossec's "Tambourin."

Together with Llio Rhydderch's harp disc this makes for a very restful listening session. Although the music itself is reasonably complex it is very easy on the ear. As a caveat, I think that Stefan has this and was not so enamoured.

Cheers
Huw

Huw,

Thank you. It sounds very interesting, and I definitely going to try to listen to it, since I have very little music of harp.

Haim

Coleman Hawkins - Soul

quote:

Huw,

Thank you. It sounds very interesting, and I definitely going to try to listen to it, since I have very little music of harp.

Haim

Then you should try the Llio Rhydderch, even though it is quite short by CD standards.

Huw