Havergal Brian.

[John Whitmore]

Great Music is Great Music regardless of sound quality.

Having, as a child (sub 12) grown up with 78s I can testify to the impression that recordings which were quite execrable had on me.

I have an old Melodyia LP-which weighs a ton- of Mravinsky and the Leningrad Phil. doing Wagner's Overture to "Tannhauser". The sound is absolutely ghastly, the performance is incandescent with a burning passion, a driven intensity and a quite glorious sense of the music's power and majesty which I have NEVER heard bettered

I've always liked the Columbia Philharmonia Klemperer. Maybe because it's the first version I bought and "that's the way the piece goes". I have the same feelings about Goossens Scheherazade, Sargent's Pines/Fountains, Spivakovsky's Sibelius fiddle concerto and Hannikainen's Sibelius 2. Childhood memories from the WRC days and these have stayed with me as my preferences.

[cilgwyn]

Great Music is Great Music regardless of sound quality.

Having, as a child (sub 12) grown up with 78s I can testify to the impression that recordings which were quite execrable had on me.

I have an old Melodyia LP-which weighs a ton- of Mravinsky and the Leningrad Phil. doing Wagner's Overture to "Tannhauser". The sound is absolutely ghastly, the performance is incandescent with a burning passion, a driven intensity and a quite glorious sense of the music's power and majesty which I have NEVER heard bettered

I'm with you on 78's. My only 'record player' until I was in my late teens (late 70's) was a wind up HMV Gramophone,which belonged to my grandparents. No one wanted it,so they gave it to me!
Years later,I bought a lovely tall,near,waist high Vintage HMV. I kept admiring it the window. A couple of days later I bought it after a few pints of bitter in the old pub!

I'm a bit of a fan of early acoustic & electrical recordings & I wish they'd been able to record the Gothic in 1928! I have some late 20's/early 30's recordings by Coates,Mengelberg & Fried,of large scale works & I prefer them to some modern recordings. Funnily enough,with those early recordings,you can often hear allot of detail,which you miss on some modern recordings.I suppose this is partly because they had to mike them more closely/carefully?

Also like Weingartner's Beethoven cycle!

In terms of poor sound,Elgars own famous live recordings of excerpts from 'The Dream of Gerontius' are pretty horrendous,but through all the mush and noise,the performances themselves are very moving.

[cilgwyn]

.....and if you think that Malcolm MacDonald's writing is both evocative and inspiring........

...just imagine what it was like spending almost all of my time in his company from the age of 14 to 18 and receiving one lengthy letter per week from him for four years when he was in Cambridge

You lucky man!

[mahler10th]

Great Music is Great Music regardless of sound quality.

Yes indeed.  Those of us who lived in the age of tape recorders at a young age taped the radio and some of us even bought 'bootlegs' of our favourite pop/rock.  The sound quality didn't matter.  It was the music that mattered.  Our acoustic expectations may have changed with modern recordings, but great music is still great music.  (Er...one caveat...as long as its played well.)

[cilgwyn]

I won't mention Rock music here. Oh,wait a minute,I have. Jon Leifs!

Reminds me of some bloke in the old greasy spoon cafe (long gone) who used to brag about his diabetes and 78's of 'The Beatles'. He'd also been taught to sing by Pavarotti,in Manchester!
We didn't believe him,of course!

Led Zeppelin,AC DC,Santana,Deep Purple,Jimi Hendrix,The Groundhogs,Cream & stuff like that,don't get too many mentions here,oddly enough. Although I think ELP & Deep Purple (thanks to Malcolm Arnold) have had an honourable look in......and the Grateful Dead,of course!

Actually,I think James Brown popped in once!
(Wake up,I feel like a Havergal Brian Machine!)

[mc ukrneal]

Great Music is Great Music regardless of sound quality.

I'm gonna go somewhat against the grain and disagree. Great music can be hidden/camouflaged/reduced by poor quality sound.  Sure, on the page, it is still great (so really we agree too), but if the sound quality prevents you from hearing that then for all practical purposes it is not.

[Karl Henning]

I'm gonna go somewhat against the grain and disagree. Great music can be hidden/camouflaged/reduced by poor quality sound.  Sure, on the page, it is still great (so really we agree too), but if the sound quality prevents you from hearing that then for all practical purposes it is not.

Yes . . . the poor sound quality doesn't get in the way if (a) it's a piece you already know well, and (b) well, if it's not too poor for you to tolerate (which will vary by listener, natch).

[John Whitmore]

Yes indeed.  Those of us who lived in the age of tape recorders at a young age taped the radio and some of us even bought 'bootlegs' of our favourite pop/rock.  The sound quality didn't matter.  It was the music that mattered.  Our acoustic expectations may have changed with modern recordings, but great music is still great music.  (Er...one caveat...as long as its played well.)

I can hack my way through the Beethoven piano sonatas. Some I can do OK but most of 'em sound terrible because my technique isn't good enough. Still great music though, surely? As I write this, having just returned from brass band rehearsals, my youngest (grade 8 standard) is playing Don't Stop Me Now, Spamalot and Penny Lane on the piano. Sounds great. Can I get him to do much Schubert and Beethoven? No. He plays that for his grades and everything else is busked by ear. I give up. Oh I take it all back -Scarlatti has just broken out. That's my boy. Oh blimey - he's now doing Always Look on the Bright Side of Life

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

Oh blimey - he's now doing Always Look on the Bright Side of Life

Good boy, bringing us back to (Life of) Brian.

[John Whitmore]

Good boy, bringing us back to (Life of) Brian.

You are on the ball tonight.

[hbswebmaster]

Heifetz for the Elgar concerto.

Melodiya: now that was an experience. I had Svetlanov's Rachmaninov first symphony on LP which I played relentlessly on my Dansette record player at the end of the 60s, making a fierce, distortion-laden recording almost unlistenable-to. Even the Regis CD reissue is much the same! But the performance is incandescent, terrifying. A bit like Schmidt in the Gothic 'non-confundars'.

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

Heifetz for the Elgar concerto.

Melodiya: now that was an experience. I had Svetlanov's Rachmaninov first symphony on LP which I played relentlessly on my Dansette record player at the end of the 60s, making a fierce, distortion-laden recording almost unlistenable-to. Even the Regis CD reissue is much the same! But the performance is incandescent, terrifying. A bit like Schmidt in the Gothic 'non-confundars'.

I had my first taste of the Rach 1 at the Concertgebouw in the early 1980s. Has been a firm favourite ever since. Is Svetlanov just as good as, say, Previn and Ashkenazy?

[hbswebmaster]

Johan, you have mail...

[John Whitmore]

Heifetz for the Elgar concerto.Melodiya: now that was an experience. I had Svetlanov's Rachmaninov first symphony on LP which I played relentlessly on my Dansette record player at the end of the 60s, making a fierce, distortion-laden recording almost unlistenable-to. Even the Regis CD reissue is much the same! But the performance is incandescent, terrifying. A bit like Schmidt in the Gothic 'non-confundars'.

Heifetz for virtually everything as far as I'm concerned but not his Elgar for me at any rate. Just doesn't seem to suit him despite the usual impeccable playing. His intonation was just extraordinary. I don't know how he got to that level. Maybe he practised. Rach 1 - always had a soft spot for the scrawny sounding CBS Ormandy myself as used on BBC's Panorama programme.

[hbswebmaster]

Aaah - so it was the Ormandy. I always wondered which version they used - although there weren't many around at that time, and it certainly wasn't the Svetlanov.

[John Whitmore]

Aaah - so it was the Ormandy. I always wondered which version they used - although there weren't many around at that time, and it certainly wasn't the Svetlanov.

Do I win a prize?

[cilgwyn]

Vol 1 of Malcolm MacDonald's Symphonies of HB popped through the letterbox today. No dustjacket,but good s/h condition. A faint,'old book' odour,but not gas mask nasty! Very pleased. MM's mouth watering description of Das Siegeslied would have John slavering to hear it....IF he hadn't ALREADY heard it!

Malcolm MacDonald,the Rider Haggard of Classical music!

[Dundonnell]

Vol 1 of Malcolm MacDonald's Symphonies of HB popped through the letterbox today. No dustjacket,but good s/h condition. A faint,'old book' odour,but not gas mask nasty! Very pleased. MM's mouth watering description of Das Siegeslied would have John slavering to hear it....IF he hadn't ALREADY heard it!

Malcolm MacDonald,the Rider Haggard of Classical music!

"the Rider Haggard of Classical music"

I am telling him that. He won't be pleased!!!

Actually, Malcolm writes far better English than Rider Haggard I say that as someone with a complete collection of all RH's 58 novels. They are cracking yarns and I love many of them dearly but for the storylines not the purple prose.

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

Malcolm MacDonald is a cross between Conan Doyle and Nigella Lawson (as a writer, that is). 

[cilgwyn]

"the Rider Haggard of Classical music"

I am telling him that. He won't be pleased!!!

;DActually, Malcolm writes far better English than Rider Haggard I say that as someone with a complete collection of all RH's 58 novels. They are cracking yarns and I love many of them dearly but for the storylines not the purple prose.

Actually,I was referring,light heartedly, to the excitement of discovery that Haggard evokes,not the actual quality of the prose,itself! Haggard was a bit of a pioneer in some respects. Nowadays,movies & programmes about people travelling to exotic places are two a penny & we all tend to take turning on the old tv set & seeing such places for granted. Well,some people do! The impact his descriptions of far off places & exotic adventures must have been immense. The Indiana Jones of his day! When I first read Malcolm MacDonald's book as a teenager,I hadn't even heard most of Brian's symphonies. Thus,in it's own different way,to my young mind,Malcolm MacDonald's descriptions of Brian's 3rd,Das Siegeslied or the Seventh,for example were every bit as thrilling & tantalisingly exotic as Haggard's She or King Solomon's Mines.
Incidentally,I personally think there are some passages of great beauty and power in Haggard's best book (arguably),She. But having said that,it's not the kind of prose that would be regarded as subtle (or pc),these days. Purple,is the right word for allot of Haggard's prose,but at his best,he was b***** good at what he did!

I have been reading She,and MM just made me think of that! The sense of discovery & adventure. Not the prose! (rest assured)

Kipling might have been a better example? But it least I didn't compare Malcolm MacDonald to Edgar Rice Burroughs!

You won't tell him really,WILL YOU?!!!
                                                                   Yours Sincerely
                                                                    He who must be obeyed!
                                                                    (but not really)

NB: ALL 58?!!! You're book collection is every bit as as epic as you're cd library!