tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post485153958405661342..comments2024-03-26T07:58:59.761+00:00Comments on I'll think of something later: On programming geniusDavidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14506881804082382739noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post-32047975311307885952008-10-02T01:38:00.000+01:002008-10-02T01:38:00.000+01:00I don't know of any other specific instances where...I don't know of any other specific instances where Robertson has segued directly from one piece into another like that Ives-Copland one, although I remember a review from last year's Proms (<A HREF="http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2007/jul/24/classicalmusicandopera1" REL="nofollow">here</A>) where he minimized the pauses between the movements of Beethoven 7. I've heard him do the same with Sibelius 5.Geo.https://www.blogger.com/profile/05688490063600488617noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post-63737545727130351202008-09-30T09:20:00.000+01:002008-09-30T09:20:00.000+01:00And scatter-brained me forgot to say that I indeed...And scatter-brained me forgot to say that I indeed subsequently read your tribute to Dr. Handley, and agree that the Prom on the day of his death was surely appropriate!JVaughanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07468133975019785693noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post-52170794644130874532008-09-30T09:16:00.000+01:002008-09-30T09:16:00.000+01:00Finally, lest I forget (and I nearly did), I did r...Finally, lest I forget (and I nearly did), I did read your tribute to Dr. Handleyy later, and yes, that programme was indeed appropriate as a memorial! As you presumably saw above my first, and this, comment, I am a Blogger subscriber, and, for what it is worth, have an inactive blog at house-of.blogspot.com. <BR/><BR/>A touchstone passage for me in the Elgar is the one for strings following the soloist's first passage in the slow movement, I preferring it broad, as the composer conducted it with the future Lord Menuin and Sir Simon did in the second Kennedy recording, etc. I recall Dr. Handley conducting that passage faster, as Sir Adrian did for Maestro Menuhin later. This latest performance contained _MUCH_ rubato throughout, and the faster speeds were possibly the fastest I have thus far heard in this music, but somehow it all seemed to work! One hopes that, as a possible memorial and/or given the high regard in twhich this performance was generally held, will see fit to eventually issue it on CD if all contractual obstacles, if any, can be overcome! <BR/><BR/>As for Tchaikovsky _5_, I was speaking of interpretation in general, how this music was performed in Tchaikovsky's time if we know and what guidance, if any, he might give us outside what he has marked in the score. Heretofore my two favourite recordings have been the first Mehta, with the Israel Philharmonic, and the Solti/CSO. Yet, in their respectivee First Movements, they contain a now-unfashionable accelerando/stringendo leading into the first big tutti of tthat movement, whereas now most conductors seem to take it in tempo and at the slower tempo at which the opening of the main body of the movement is taken. Yet further, according to the most-recent _Building_ _A_ _Library_ feature on this symphony, Tchaikovsky prescribes a slower metronome mark for the main body of the Finale than we most often hear these days, a performance which seems to follow what I gather is prescribed being Maestro Ormandy's last, on Denon, and presumably his others as well. I havwe heard the Mutti and at least one Abbado, and recall the former being passionate since his is my favourite _Fourth_, though only specifically recall now that Maestro Mutti also takes the opening section of the First Movement's main body according to the current fashion, in tempo. Again I wish I had the eyesight to read a score, both as to the foregoing and what is to be done with the passage leading into the Second Subject and what rubato, if any, is to be observed in these passages, as one usually hears to varying degrees. And both Maestros Solti and Ormandy take the big climaxes in the Second Movement slower than Maestro Mehta did, Maestro Mutti probably as well. So we come back to what saith Tchaikovsky, and was he prepared, as his despised-as-a-composer Brahms was, to countenance, if not embrace, varying approaches? As both an amateur student of performance practice and a lover of this work (though I may not be quite as enthusiastic about it now as I once was, possibly due to over-familiarity), these matters are of much interest to me! I did not originally intend to air them here, but rather privately. Yet you bated me after a manner, and it would have been difficult to resist! <BR/><BR/>Hoping again, and expecting, that this finds you well, and with _MANY_ thanks,<BR/><BR/>J. V.<BR/><BR/>p.s. I wrote the above by coming through Internet Explorer instead of Outlook Express as before, and thus the compatibility with my reading software which I previously noted must have come through the latter. I thus must apologize for several typographical errors which I am unable to correct for not being able to get back to where they occurred and correct them, and there were further some spelling ones as well, the first of them being on the first occurrence of Lord Menuhin's name. Two others I now recall were Maestro Muti's name and "baited." <BR/>Yet further, I obviously meant to express hope that the _BBC_ would see fit to release the Kennedy/Daniel Elgar _Concerto_!JVaughanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07468133975019785693noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post-25477388960772229632008-09-30T08:19:00.000+01:002008-09-30T08:19:00.000+01:00Greetings both,How exciting to have some correspon...Greetings both,<BR/><BR/>How exciting to have some correspondence again after a bit of a gap. I know friends have problems with leaving comments because they have to sign up to the Google/Blogger scenario, which most aren't willing to do.<BR/><BR/>JV, I guess you saw the homage to 'Tod' earlier - it was, as I wrote, strange indeed that the VW/Holst/Xenakis programme should have fallen on the same day as his death.<BR/><BR/>Those lucky enough to hear Nigel's Elgar at the Proms picked it out as a highlight. He can indeed do the serious stuff when he wants. I still adore that recording with Handley, though.<BR/><BR/>Tchaikovsky Five - do you mean interpretations in general? Or are you referring to the Simon Bolivar/Dudamel recording I referred to earlier? I still haven't had the privilege of hearing it. But for what it's worth, my ideal Fives are Abbado, Muti and Barenboim with the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra (played continuously, and with passion).<BR/><BR/>George, that's very interesting about Robertson segu(e)ing from Ives to Copland. I wonder what other examples there are? I bet Ivan Fischer has also done something of the sort. He recently conducted Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra with only a second or so between each movement.<BR/><BR/>Best to both,<BR/><BR/>DavidDavidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14506881804082382739noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post-58427657434360417482008-09-30T04:33:00.000+01:002008-09-30T04:33:00.000+01:00Have only recently discovered your blog, after rea...Have only recently discovered your blog, after reading your articles in <I>BBC Music Magazine</I> in the past on the other side of the pond. Speaking of Robertson, that Wagner-Schoenberg transition isn't the only time he's done that, if <A HREF="http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/18/arts/music/18loui.html" REL="nofollow">this 2005 New York concert</A> is anything to go by (while we're remembering Paul Newman).<BR/><BR/>Had I been in London, I would have been very happy to hear the opening LPO concert of the season, especially for RVW 8. But the realities of geography intrude.Geo.https://www.blogger.com/profile/05688490063600488617noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post-67465590624602585822008-09-30T00:07:00.000+01:002008-09-30T00:07:00.000+01:00Greetings!:I have been _MOST_ remiss in not return...Greetings!:<BR/><BR/>I have been _MOST_ remiss in not returning here after my first visits as well as not having written to you after reading your rather-short, yet _EMINENTLY_-sensible, book on Elgar, which I wished to read in light of our first personal exchanges of a while back. Yet I would guess that your busy season has returned, and thus any personal correspondence from me might well be problematic at present, though still tempting. <BR/><BR/>I _DID_ hear the Proms VW _8_ via the Internet, and, while I felt it was good, I have been lately spoiled by a sonically-problematic, yet _MOST_-effective in my opinion, Barbirolli recording (not his first one from the 50's, but a later live one in stereo), with what I feel is a _SPOT_-_ON_ tempo for the Scherzo and an interestingly-phrased account of the slow movement instead of what seems to be this generic basically-continuous legato! Again I am hampered for not being able to see a score, but wonder how VW himself marked it, though he seems to have allowed for a range of interpretations of his music, and, of course, this symphony is dedicated to "Glorious John!" Though still probably not among my very-favourite VW works, this performance went a _LONG_ way toward causing me to like it more, and I hope to hear it again on 23 October as part of my annual VW cycle! Yet further, not knowing what coverage was given here to the regretable death of Dr. Handley, his recording of the _Sixth_ joins this cycle this year in place of Sir Adrian's stereo version, though I _MIGHT_ restore his account of the _Ninth_, having played Dr. Handley's version soon after he left us. I keep meaning to explore the Bax symphonies, and have been thinking about that again as well, though critical commentary, while mostly favourable, is slightly divided on some of Dr. Handley's accounts of these works. Yet I personally would be inclined to trust his instincts here, given his fervency about this composer, and also expect reasonable clarity of textures despite Chandos's tendency toward varyingly-spacious acoustics. Yet further, as did his mentor, he usually divides his first and second violins to left and right, as still was mostly being done at the time these symphonies were being written. I wish he had been well enough to conduct his Prom so that we could have heard what he does with _The_ _Garden_ _Of_ _Fand_, not to mention wondering if he would have conducted Kennedy in the Elgar _Concerto_ in the same basic manner as Maestro Daniel did, likely since I hear that the soloist usually has most of the say in the interpretation of a concerto. Despite what could have been regarded as some extremes, I liked that performance better than the highly-regarded studio recording he made with Dr. Handley. And speaking of both Elgar and Sir Mark, I _EAGERLY_ await the latter's forthcoming recording of _Gerontius_, feeling that, if all three of his soloists in this live recording do what they are capable of doing, we might be in for _THE_ recording of this work, though Sir John's justly-famous account should not be entirely eclipsed! <BR/><BR/>Since this is _NOT_ my blog, I probably should close soon, though I would close by saying that I would be interested in discussing the interpretation of Tchaikovsky's _Fifth_ _Symphony_ with you now that I know you have written about that famous composer as well. <BR/><BR/>Hoping that this finds you and yours well, and with many best wishes, <BR/><BR/>J. V.JVaughanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07468133975019785693noreply@blogger.com