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Du Pré's Cello Concerto was followed by Nigel Kennedy's second rcording of the Violin Concerto with Simon Rattle. It was his frst recording that put him on the map and his second seems to have divided opinion. He and Rattle adopt quite expansive tempi, but I like this recording and the Vaughan-Williams is wonderfully rapt.
Barbirolli is often my guide in Elgar (as he was in Du Pré's Cello Concerto), as also in Vaughan-Williams, and this disc is an absolute classic, which has rarely been out of the catalogue For this issue, EMI added Elgar's Elegy and Sospiri, one of the most heartbreaking five minutes in all of music. A wonderful disc.
Saint-Georges: Violin Concerto in C major, Op. 5, No. 1, etc.
Takako Nishizaki (violin)
Cologne Chamber Orchestra, Helmut Muller-Bruhl
Saint-Georges: Violin Concerto in A major, Op. 5, No. 2
Saint-Georges: Violin Concerto in C major, Op. 5, No. 1
Saint-Georges: Violin Concerto in G major, Op. 8
Hans Werner Henze - various works part four for this morning and early afternoon.
The English Cat is a bittersweet work. It centres around a group of anthropomorphic cats in the late Victorian era, some of whom represent the pompous and hypocritical Royal Society for the Protection of Rats. The society's associates include an orphan mouse, Louise, who happens to have more common sense than all the cats put together.
The crux of the plot is a love affair between Minette, the impressionable new wife of the aristocratic president-elect of the society (Lord Puff) and Tom, her happy-go-lucky admirer and the attempts of the president-elect's rakish and impoverished nephew (Arnold) to inherit Lord Puff's fortune by taking advantage of the extra-marital scandal with the aid of his devious creditor (Jones). In terms of musical texture it's not a million miles away from Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress.
String Quartet no.5 (1976-77):
Barcarola for large orchestra (1979):
***
(*** same recording but different artwork)
The English Cat - opera in two acts [Libretto: Edward Bond, after the story Les peines de coeur d'une chatte anglaise by Honoré de Balzac] (1978-82 - rev. 1990):
Arnold Schoenberg: Gurrelieder
Alwyn Mellor, Soprano
Anna Larsson, Mezzo soprano
Arnold Schoenberg, Composer
Bergen Philharmonic Choir
Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra
Choir of Collegiûm Mûsicûm
Edvard Grieg Choir
Edward Gardner, Conductor
James Creswell, Bass
Orphei Drängar
Stuart Skelton, Tenor
Students from the Royal Northern College of Music
Thomas Allen, Speaker
Wolfang Ablinger-Sperrhacke, Tenor
Fux: Ad te, Domine levavi K153
Fux: Alma Redemptoris Mater K186
Fux: Ave Maria K151
Fux: Ave Regina caelorum K205
Fux: Graduale in Missa pro Defunctis K146
Fux: In expositione funeris
Fux: Kirchensonate in G K320
Fux: Libera me Domine K54
Fux: Pastorale K396
Fux: Sonata a Santo Sepolcro K376
I do not consider myself to be an expert and am therefore reluctant to pass judgement on performances/recordings. However I really did not enjoy these two performances.....I had just returned to the Prague and turned it off....something not quite right to these ears! Am now listening to Davis and the Staatskapelle Dresden performance. In both cases the recordings were new to me.....one from the Abbado Symphony Edition box set, the other from the Davis Symphonies box set. I am well aware that I am not comparing 'like with like' in that the orchestras are very different but I find myself far preferring Davis. It is not even as simple as preferring big modern orchestras to HIP informed outfits.......my performances of choice in this case have proven to be either conducted by Mackerras or Harnoncourt.
^ I think I agree with much that you say. I find Abbado's Mozart is almost always too slick while Davis had a real feel for Mozart in his younger days. I do also often enjoy Harnoncourt's Mozart (especially those with the Consentus Musicus) but am not really a fan of Mackerras in Mozart (too little joy, rather hard pressed). Do you not warm to Bruno Walter's Mozart or Beecham's?
I do not consider myself to be an expert and am therefore reluctant to pass judgement on performances/recordings. However I really did not enjoy these two performances.....I had just returned to the Prague and turned it off....something not quite right to these ears! Am now listening to Davis and the Staatskapelle Dresden performance. In both cases the recordings were new to me.....one from the Abbado Symphony Edition box set, the other from the Davis Symphonies box set. I am well aware that I am not comparing 'like with like' in that the orchestras are very different but I find myself far preferring Davis. It is not even as simple as preferring big modern orchestras to HIP informed outfits.......my performances of choice in this case have proven to be either conducted by Mackerras or Harnoncourt.
Fair point Jim - I bought that Abbado Mozart box but rarely listen to it. I will try it again in the near future. My gut feeling was that this wasn't Abbado's natural way with Mozart, was he outside his comfort zone whilst trying to 'modernise' his interpretations?
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