tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post1823111245335187897..comments2024-03-26T07:58:59.761+00:00Comments on I'll think of something later: Star-cross'dDavidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14506881804082382739noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post-11940965575139520052010-02-17T20:43:53.808+00:002010-02-17T20:43:53.808+00:00Wise words as ever, Piala. I agree, I warm to Ferr...Wise words as ever, Piala. I agree, I warm to Ferri the most of all the Juliets I've seen, though Rojo is very fine and I need to see Fonteyn again.<br /><br />Did I ever go into Goldsmiths? I LIVED there for two years, working my way through the 40 boxes of photopied everything that Lina Prokofiev lodged in the Serge Prokofiev Archive (which is separate from the Centre for Russian Music, but interconnected). And I met and got to know a remarkable lady who has become one of the most inspirational people in my life, Noelle Mann.<br /><br />If you like what you read, I think you'll also grow to love the man I came to know through the letters in Vol. 1. In spite of what people say, he was a Mensch (or a real man, as I won't render in Russian). Next time we meet...Davidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14506881804082382739noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post-30814710622162604382010-02-17T19:29:33.052+00:002010-02-17T19:29:33.052+00:00Dear David,
Alessandra Ferri is THE best Juliet o...Dear David,<br /><br />Alessandra Ferri is THE best Juliet of all time - no, but don't worry, that is me having been so stunned by her performance many months back on DVD, that I am being wholly partial. It was the Teatro alla Scale production, and I hated everything else about it.<br /><br />But I was wondering if you ever went into the Russian Studies Centre at Goldsmith College at all while writing your book on Prokofiev? As the other day, I found they have a display wall on him there with reproductions of some of the items from their archive. I couldn't believe the beauty and tenderness with which he expressed some of his feelings on two displayed letters - one in French, and the other, in English! "Love for Three Oranges" I think had just been put on at Chicago?- and not to any great acclaim.<br />Well, that's my REAL proper introduction to the world of Prokofiev.<br /><br />These people are the best.<br /><br />PS: Plus please don't worry too much about having not done Russian as your degree. It's sounds like you're asking an awful lot of yourself. I regret doing my English Degree as it totally mucked me up financially without the personal capabilities after to overcome it. But then I'd be shaking if I had NEVER read Virginia Woolf, or NEVER studied in detail through the plays of Shakespeare. But then now I'm shaking that I've NEVER played through a piece by Prokifiev. The basic thing is, that I think you'll never win, as it's just too overwhelming.<br />It's like hoping for a more perfect - and narrower, world - which others might want, but that's a ghastly place.<br /><br />PialaPiala Murraynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post-61272958836595426492010-02-16T10:56:57.777+00:002010-02-16T10:56:57.777+00:00You should try the excellent Presto Classical site...You should try the excellent Presto Classical site, where it retails for about £18. Don't know if this link works, but here it is:<br /><br />http://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/r/Melodiya/MELCD1000908<br /><br />Good luck!Davidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14506881804082382739noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post-1555868193474899812010-02-15T23:24:28.770+00:002010-02-15T23:24:28.770+00:00Thus far the only CD copy I have been able to find...Thus far the only CD copy I have been able to find, and there is only one, is from an Amazon.De seller, at 24.89 Euros. Since the banks are closed today for President's Day, I would not be able to get an approximate exchange rate until tomorrow at the earliest, so as to make a hopefully-prudent financial choice. Prokofiev.org has an LP copy, and US Arkivmusic seems not to have it at all. Prokofiev.org also had that DVD you doubtless rightly rejected. I might also do well to check a couple or more local shops that still carry CD's, thus saving international P&P, though some of that would be made up for in sales tax. <br /><br />J. V.JVaughanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07468133975019785693noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post-38258881125465274642010-02-15T11:46:08.249+00:002010-02-15T11:46:08.249+00:00I'm not sure which DVDs you mean, but if one i...I'm not sure which DVDs you mean, but if one is the Lavrovsky/Arnshtam film, it does have Ulanova, but musically and dramatically it's a mess. How proud GR must have been to go into the studio and redeem what he'd been compelled to sanction with an utterly complete recording.<br /><br />The Melodiya CDs are to be found on various sites, I'm told. Oddly not (yet) Amazon.Davidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14506881804082382739noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post-37303224990395500212010-02-15T11:34:41.738+00:002010-02-15T11:34:41.738+00:00It regretably is as you have stated, though there ...It regretably is as you have stated, though there are at least two Rozhdestvensky DVD's on US Amazon. Since the visuals would not be a factor for me, are either of these perchance of your recommended audio performance, or, if not, do they feature the same interpretive perceptiveness in equal measure? <br /><br />I heard some Melodiya recordings on, primarily, monaural radios, but from at least the late 70's onward, would not buy Soviet nor Eastern Block recordings, though I did receive Maestro Sawallisch's rather-fine German _Elijah_ from Leipzig as a birthday present in 1970. At least I need have no such scruples now! <br /><br />J. V.JVaughanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07468133975019785693noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post-88256308016861110862010-02-14T17:38:22.864+00:002010-02-14T17:38:22.864+00:00Will have to wait, I'm afraid, Jon (I'm su...Will have to wait, I'm afraid, Jon (I'm sure you and the mighty reading public can hang on). Dull and drear, this afternoon put us off strolling southwards to Fulham/Chelsea or northwards to Notting Hill, which was part of the intended exercise. Probably we'll go tomorrow.Davidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14506881804082382739noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post-89135104397872744382010-02-14T16:43:52.352+00:002010-02-14T16:43:52.352+00:00Interested to hear what you thought of A Single Ma...Interested to hear what you thought of A Single Man. I don't think I've ever seen such a stunningly made film (and, unsurprisingly, Tom Ford knows how to make men look beautiful) but I didn't come close to crying, and I suspect I was supposed to.jondrytayhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07014577384156823525noreply@blogger.com