LPs batch 6: Weymouth in the New World

Posted on March 31, 2010 by vhk10

The cover of our recording of Kubelik conducting the VPO in the New World Symphony is – mysteriously – a painting of Weymouth Bay by Gainsborough; however the record sticks, so no good. To make up for the Debussy Nocturnes that also stuck, I found another LP of the Nocturnes coupled with Ravel’s second Daphnis and Chloe suite, with Abbado and the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

The symphony cycle continues with two more discs of Mozart conducted by Neville Marriner and James Conlon, and Beethoven 7 with Colin Davis and the LSO.

Finally a couple of Supraphons of piano music: Klánská playing Janacek’s ‘On the overgrown path’ (sic) and a live recital of Ivan Moravec playing music by Suk, Smetana and Oldrich Korte (of whom I hadn’t previously heard).

Meanwhile, a really irritating glitch in RealPlayer. Polderbits’ track splitting is far from perfect (I’ll write in more detail some other time about this) and it was only when I played a CD over that I realised the final track, a short Etude by Scriabin, had been truncated by the splitter so that the final chord was cut short. Accordingly I went back to the original transcript, divided it again, manually corrected the truncation and wrote the full-length track back to the directory with the other tracks from that LP. I burnt the CD again and to my puzzlement the track was still truncated, though in a fractionally different place. I got to the bottom of this. It seems that RealPlayer works out the length of each file of music it is told about, and never revises the length even when the file is overwritten. It was convinced that the Scriabin prelude was 2 minutes 58 seconds long, and nothing would persuade it otherwise. The only thing for it is to give the re-recorded track a different name rather than overwriting the other. So I’ll have to burn the CD a third time to get the Etude entire. And I don’t even LIKE Scriabin….

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LPs batch 5: some duplicate works

Posted on March 27, 2010 by vhk10

Our stock of Bach on LP is limited and this batch began with part of it, an LP of the E major violin concerto and the orchestral suite in B minor played by two minor German orchestras. I intend to use this as a filler alongside the short recording of cantatas from batch 1. A rarity I suspect is a mixed bag of Tchaikovsky, Smetana and Scriabin played by Frantisek Maxian, Alfred Holecek and Oldrich Hlinka.

I’m now including more recordings of works which we also have in other recordings. Among these is Verdi’s Requiem, with Abbado, the chorus and orchestra of La Scala, and some distinguished soloists. I believe that this company was actually assembled to record something else, but that fell through and so they almost accidentally recorded Verdi’s Requiem, the way one does. Notable of course for the full-blooded chorus – there really is a chorus of top C’s from the sopranos near the end. It’s a DG transfer to… Hungaroton.

Out of season is The world of Christmas, a collection of carols from King’s College Choir, rather surprisingly not including ‘Once in Royal’. The tracks were recorded at different times and some are now half a century old. It captures well the refined sound under Willcocks, with diction that seems a little precious now.

We now have a CD box of complete Mozart symphonies, but there’s still room for nos 38 and 39 with the VPO under Böhm. The final disc in this batch is the standard pairing of Grieg and Schumann piano concertos played by Arrau with the Concertgebouw and Dohnanyi. The cover of this – an old map of Europe – was a little puzzling until I read in the small print that it was published in Amsterdam.

The other end of the process is now cranking into action, with the first actual CDs rolling off the production line yesterday and already being commandeered by members of the family to expand their listening repertoire.

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summer 2013

Posted on March 24, 2010 by vhk10

Thinking ahead, I’ve been making some approaches to Cathedrals about a week in August 2013 for the Cathedral Chamber Choir. Increasingly, Cathedrals are putting bookings on hold until the school holiday dates are settled; this has happened with Canterbury. My letter to Lincoln Cathedral has gone unanswered.

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LPs batch 4: Hungaroton

Posted on March 23, 2010 by vhk10

This batch started with another Karajan disc, a stately recording of Mozart’s Requiem which I must have played many times, to judge by the crackles. I followed this with King’s College Choir singing Britten (Ceremony of Carols/Hymn to St Cecilia/Missa Brevis), which I bought because the first of these works was a set piece for me at school.

One of my old compilation LPs is a disc of Reading Phoenix Choir singing assorted short choral pieces. These include a commission by Bryan Kelly setting a poem about one Linda, who worked in a local factory and was stood up at Caversham Bridge (‘Promises break like biscuits….’). Another is Decca’s ‘Birds in Music’, which precedes bird-inspired music (in good recordings!) with actual birdsong.

Tchaikovsky’s 5th symphony, with the Soviet Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Rozhdestvensky, shows off fine unreconstructed Eastern European brass. It’s a Hungaroton transfer from Melodiya, which meant I had to deduce the conductor’s name from a transcription into Hungarian, the only language on the sleeve.

The only Mahler symphony in our LP collection is the first, with the Israel Philharmonic conducted by Mehta. The sound here is a problem – even allowing for the volume Mahler can reach, it seems over-recorded and I’m not whether that the usual recording settings aren’t causing distortion.

The batch finished with a Hungaraton recording of Bartok’s Concerto for Orchestra and Dance Suite (Ferencsik and the Hungarian State Orchestra). It comes with a generously long sleeve note, in several languages.

Why so much Hungaroton? In the dying days of the communist regime we both independently visited Hungary and stocked up on cheap LPs, that being an obvious thing to buy there.

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LPs batch 3: the less popular composers

Posted on March 18, 2010 by vhk10

The process continues apace. I’m afraid at the moment it’s still showing up which are the composers we are less keen on, as I save our favourites for later. I started with another old disc of mine, Holst’s Planets conducted by Malcolm Sargent. Some other composers with a toe-hold in our collection: Prokofiev (his first and third symphonies), Hindemith and Honegger (represented by string quartets). We think the Hindemith and Honegger disc – a Supraphon recording – was passed on by a relative who didn’t like it either.

I included a rather heavy-handed performance by Karajan of Tchaikovsky’s sixth symphony. This lacks a sleeve, and came from the death throes of the once-great Taphouse’s music shop in Oxford. Other duplicated works included Mozart concertos performed by Elisso Virsaladze and the Leningrad Chamber Orchestra, worth transferring if only as a record of how Mozart was interpreted in the USSR.

This batch finished with two discs of Telemann and Handel from my former neighbour Christopher Hogwood and the Academy of Ancient Music. There isn’t a whole lot of early music among our LPs; at the time we were buying most of them performance practice in this area was rapidly changing and new ensembles springing up, so it made sense to build up a collection at a time when there was more choice. By then CDs had taken over.

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LPs batch 2: sticking points

Posted on March 15, 2010 by vhk10

This began with a two-disc set of the Hilliards singing Palestrina’s Canticum Canticorum motets. I’m not a great Palestrina fan in general, but this recording is really exquisite, with clear limpid sound.

Then I moved on to an anniversary composer, Schumann, and a couple of LPs of his symphonies with Muti and the Philharmonia. Sadly, the Rhenish recording stuck. When a recording of Hummel’s violin sonatas (on the obscure Amon Ra label) also stuck, it was time to look into the matter and adjust the balance of the arm. After this the recording no longer stuck and neither did the Schumann, though the Debussy in the previous batch still did.

I followed this with a disc of Schumann’s 1st and 4th symphonies, which runs for well over an hour and must be one of the longer discs in the collection.

Canteloube’s Songs of the Auvergne (sung by Dame Kiri here) are a bit soupy for my taste and will probably be played only in the car; the recording was a 21st birthday present.

The final recording in the batch was Shostakovich’s suite from The Gadfly in an old Melodiya recording. This is a case where it is a shame to lose the cover, a quaintly pastel-tinted photograph of the composer sat at a desk with a spare pair of glasses in front of him.

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a time of penitence

Posted on March 13, 2010 by vhk10

The Chandos Singers broke some new ground with their latest poster, showing a couple of flagellants. The concert was built around two Masses by Adam Michna: his Lenten Mass and Requiem. The former of these is built on a repeating eight-bar bass line, basically in F major with an E flat thrown in for some tonal variety. By the time this E flat had trundled past over thirty times, it had lost something of its novelty, but the movements of the Mass were broken up by other pieces for variety.

For a change we made an excursion into the world of British cathedral-type repertoire. I had never come across Vaughan Williams’ O vos omnes which dates from around the time of his Mass and contains many echoes of passages in it. Nor did I know Leighton’s Quam dilecta, a lengthy anthem with an extended soprano solo (divided between three of us), which reminded me in particular of his second set of Evening Canticles. There is enough Leighton for me to keep on discovering new works by him for some time.

Other pieces included Victoria’s Salve Regina for double choir and two of Poulenc’s Lenten motets. We finished with a composer I’d never come across: Bernhard Lewkovitch’s Exsultate Domino, a jolly setting which changes key signature frequently. Once I’d worked out that the 8/4 bars contained three beats and not four I was all right.

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LPs batch 1: the early trials

Posted on March 12, 2010 by vhk10

As I’m not sure I’m using absolutely optimal settings for digitisation, I’m starting with some LPs that we’re not so deeply attached to. First off the mark was some double harpsichord concertos by Couperin and Rameau (apologies to their memories).

This batch contained one of my earliest LP purchases (I think I was still at primary school when I got it); Giulini and the Philharmonia performing La Mer; sadly the Three Nocturnes on the other side sticks – I probably didn’t look after my discs too well in those days.

At the other end of the scale are Franck/Debussy/Ravel violin sonatas recorded by Shlomo Mintz and Yefim Bronfman in 1985, which must be one of the most recent recordings in the whole collection.

We have two recordings of Liszt’s B minor Sonata; the one by Bernard d’Ascoli (which also includes La leggierezza and Franck’s Prelude, Chorale and Fugue), was first up to the platter. The waveform of the opening to this sonata is very distinctive! Another piano disc is of Szymanowski and Janáček played by Jan Latham-Koenig, of interest to me because he is a conductor I’ve sung for with Chorus Angelorum.

Earlier repertoire was represented in this batch by a rather short disc of Bach’s Reformation cantatas BWV79 and 80, conducted by Leonhardt and Harnoncourt respectively.

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the process starts

Posted on March 9, 2010 by vhk10

I have at long last begun the process of digitally recording our LPs on to CDs. It’s going to be a long haul; I estimate there are a good 200 LPs to be done.

I’ll begin with a few general observations on our LP collection. About three-quarters of the LPs originally belonged to my husband (who had a head start on me, and like many performers I’ve never been a great collector of recorded music). For obvious reasons none of the recordings are later than the mid-1980’s. As we were both building up a basic collection of standard repertoire the musical taste of the collection is not very adventurous and 20th-century works in particular are under-represented. Recordings of earlier music are not necessarily historically informed! It would be interesting (though I don’t think I have the time) to work out how many of these recordings are still in the catalogue. There are a lot of Melodiya and Supraphon discs which I suspect are unavailable now. There is very little opera, but a few boxed sets of other works and composers.

I’ll be posting updates here after each batch. I’m noting various pieces of information about each recording as I go: as well as details of work and performers, the label and number, date and place of recording (where given).

A technical note: I’m using an ART USB Phono Plus V2 preamp and (at least for recording;we’re getting some advice on editing) PolderbitS software.

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Philip Langridge

Posted on March 7, 2010 by vhk10

I was sorry to hear yesterday that he had died. I had the privilege of sharing a concert platform with him once, in Britten’s St. Nicholas at the Barbican with the Tallis Chamber Choir and (I think) the ECO. I certainly heard him sing on other occasions, most recently at the ROH last year.

I have a CD of children’s songs, Minimusic, performed by him with more intelligent and musically interesting accompaniments than is usual. I realise I haven’t recommended it here before, so I’m doing so now.

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the words of the anthem are …

Posted on March 5, 2010 by vhk10

I recently went to hear the Farrant Singers from Salisbury sing evensong at Wells Cathedral. The choir contained a friend of mine (as well as another singer who is ubiquitous in choirs around here!).

It was a good service, with Howells in B minor (which seems to be turning up all over the place these days) and a setting of verses from Psalm 51 by Brahms. The verses set were read out in English at the beginning of the prayers which followed.

Other Cathedrals aren’t always so careful about anthems which aren’t in English. I was singing a few years ago at a major Cathedral in the eastern counties, and the anthem was introduced in the following words: ‘The anthem is Rheinberger’s Abendlied‘. That was it: no translation of the words, or even of Abendlied! Not everyone knows German.

There is a widespread tendency (not confined to clergy or musicians) to detach the words of the anthem from the rest of the liturgy, so it doesn’t matter if the congregation has no idea what they are. Some people complained that Princess Diana’s funeral contained no reference to the resurrection, despite the fact that the first words heard were ‘I am the resurrection and the life’. Did the fact that they’d been set to music by Purcell mean that they somehow didn’t count?

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a colossal nightingale

Posted on February 17, 2010 by vhk10

This was Heine’s description of Berlioz and I can’t improve on it, so I’m borrowing it for the title of this post.

A few years ago I learnt some of Les nuits d’été, including Le spectre de la rose. The more Berlioz I encounter the more I realise how this song seems to sum up his art; there are so many turns of phrase, harmonic changes and textures that are characteristic. With this in mind I took part in the South West Festival Chorus’ performance of the Grande Messe des Morts in the Colston Hall last weekend, with the Birmingham Philharmonic conducted by Jason Thornton and with Jeffrey Lloyd-Roberts (whom I last heard in ENO’s Lulu) as tenor soloist.

This work has the reputation among Requiem settings as The Really Noisy One. This isn’t unfair – there are moments as loud as anything you’re likely to hear in a concert hall – but it only tells part of the story. Much of the scoring is delicate, to the point of leaving the vocal parts highly exposed. And it glosses over just how radical the piece is. (For example: a movement where the choir simply alternates between two notes, in unison, until the very end; another where the vocal parts end on a discord; a Dies Irae that starts quietly and tentatively).

There’s an slight awkwardness to the overall structure, with nothing really balancing the Dies Irae, and a problem when it comes to the alto section (who have little to sing), which was solved this time by reassigning some tenor and second soprano lines to the altos. But it makes a change to have a work which showcases the tenors and basses, rather than giving the sopranos the lion’s share of the best passages.

Nothing has really quite prepared me for singing the Lacrymosa in rehearsal with the orchestra. What had seemed like a straight repeat of the first section turned out to sound very different as the four off-stage brass groups started pinging out notes from all directions. Then comes a gentle melody which is a first cousin of the song mentioned above – Gustav Mahler couldn’t have taught this man anything about doing profound things with apparently trite tunes – and suddenly the whole thing turns on a sixpence as everyone is in unison and the off-stage brass start up again. There’s one last twist as one of the great Neapolitan chords in the literature introduces the final triumphant peroration.

I don’t think I oversang as I was still able to talk the following day. But I’d been unwell and it would be good to sing the work in full vocal health. Or just to hear it again! Not least because recordings are only going to be a shadow of the sound of a live performance.

I should say a little bit about Colston Hall, which has had a revamp since I last sang there in another Requiem. Actually the revamp is just a new (though very extensive) foyer area; the backstage area is as much an unsignposted rabbit-warren as ever, and you can still find the orignal entrance and box office, looking now rather forlorn.

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