Vaughan Williams's Veranda

[Karl Henning]

Regarding the operas. They do have some lovely music in them which stops me from taking them to the charity shop!

(* chortle *)

[cilgwyn]

Here's my list:

No 1 Boult (Decca)

No 2 Previn (RCA), Boult (EMI), Barbirolli (EMI, I know many prefer the earlier Dutton), Hickox (orig version 1913) Chandos, Handley (EMI not CFP version)

No 3 Previn (RCA)

No 4 Berglund (EMI), Thomson (Chandos) Mitropoulos (Sony)

No 5 Barbirolli (EMI) Hickox (Chandos)

No 6 Abravanel (Vanguard), Boult (Decca) Stokowski (Cala), Berglund (HMV n/a)

No 7 Barbirolli (EMI), Haitink (EMI)

No 8 Previn (RCA)

No 9 Stokowski (Cala), Boult (EMI or Decca/Everest), Slatkin (RCA), Thomson (Chandos)

Ooh,I didn't know Abravanel had recorded the Sixth! He's a favourite of mine!

[cilgwyn]

Just saw vandermolen's post on Musicweb's Message Board. So,you liked Blood,Sweat & Tears,too (I still do!). I like the idea of Cumberland being passed off as the Antarctic. Presumably,you found out,when you looked at the small print?!

[vandermolen]

Just saw vandermolen's post on Musicweb's Message Board. So,you liked Blood,Sweat & Tears,too (I still do!). I like the idea of Cumberland being passed off as the Antarctic. Presumably,you found out,when you looked at the small print?!

Gosh I'd forgotten about my BS and T Musicweb post - yes, a great band.

I'd like you to think that my eagle eye immediately identified the Cumberland location of the Decca Eclipse 'Sinfonia Antartica' but you're quite right - I read the small print. Symphony 6 had Blea Tarn (or is it BlaeTarn? ) in the Lake District as an appropriately craggy cover image for Symphony 6 (the same location features on the front of the Naxos CD featuring symphonies 3 and 6). That's why I always associate that symphony with bleak, craggy landscapes of the North of England rather than with post nuclear Armageddon.
Seeing those Decca Eclipse VW LPs is quite a nostalgia trip. I think that they used National Trust landscape locations apart from A London Symphony I guess.

[vandermolen]

Ooh,I didn't know Abravanel had recorded the Sixth! He's a favourite of mine!

My spies tell me that it will be reissued soon cilgwyn.


PS I'd now choose Haitink for my No.1 choice for 'A Sea Symphony'.

[Karl Henning]

PS I'd now choose Haitink for my No.1 choice for 'A Sea Symphony'.

(* pounds the table *)

[Mirror Image]

PS I'd now choose Haitink for my No.1 choice for 'A Sea Symphony'.

I'll have to revisit Haitink's A Sea Symphony. I'm not a great fan of his cycle (sluggish tempi, almost a Germanized approach to the music), but I do recall his performance of A Sea Symphony being one of his better performances.

[cilgwyn]

I must put some B S & Tears again,before long. I recently acquired their first album,Child is father to the man. The first one I heard,before that chap with the really great voice took over. I like their first effort,though. Rock,big band,blues,jazz. What a combination!!

I like the photos on the front of those Decca eclipse albums......Lp's,I should say. I'm not sure that some of them weren't messed up by that fad for electronic stereo? I could be wrong,though? Maybe,it was a different series. I remember saying how much I liked a Boult recording of a VW symphony (maybe here?). Someone pointed out that the recording was great,but the Lp was in "electronic stereo"! Oh dear,I hadn't noticed!!! I remember the famous recording of Lehar's Die Lustige Witwe (not your cup of tea) with Schwarzkopf in this reprocessed stereo. She sounded like she was singing in a very echoey bathroom. I subsequently discovered that she wasn't!! Also,a Sarah Vaughan Lp which sounded like she was singing down a drainpipe. Both recordings were originally mono! Also a Kiss me Kate soundtrack album. They always sounded horrible,in other words! Yet,they seem to have persisted in this practice for some years. Awful dubbing of foreign movies in english was the movie equivalent! Hilariously,here in Wales,they actually tried dubbing famous movies into Welsh! They got as far as three before the mickey taking got too much!! *Dracula and Shane speaking in Welsh just sounded funny!

I recently enjoyed hearing Abravanel's recording of William Schumann's Seventh. I recorded it onto a cd-r,via Youtube. I didn't know he'd recorded that one. He was quite adventurous,though!

*Frankenstein,actually. And hello,someone uploaded an excerpt to Youtube! Frankenstein must be destroyed in Welsh! (And why not?!! )

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFGk44P2YYM

[cilgwyn]

I'll have to revisit Haitink's A Sea Symphony. I'm not a great fan of his cycle (sluggish tempi, almost a Germanized approach to the music), but I do recall his performance of A Sea Symphony being one of his better performances.

That is the one performance I really liked. It's interesting to have another perspective on these symphonies;but after listening to a couple of Haitink's recordings,I really warm to them. His performance of the Sea Symphony is my first call for that symphony now,though!
I seem to have been,somewhat side tracked in my previous post!!!! I hope the Abravanel Schumann Seventh is one of the recordings that is going to be reissued,though (according to vandermolen's friends in the secret service! ). I haven't seen a cd of that. I look forward to his VW No 6,though.
Those Decca eclipse VW releases were nice,though. I was just looking at some of them. This one,for example!

[vandermolen]

I'll have to revisit Haitink's A Sea Symphony. I'm not a great fan of his cycle (sluggish tempi, almost a Germanized approach to the music), but I do recall his performance of A Sea Symphony being one of his better performances.

I think that's the greatest performance in the set John although I like No.6 as well.

[vandermolen]

That is the one performance I really liked. It's interesting to have another perspective on these symphonies;but after listening to a couple of Haitink's recordings,I really warm to them. His performance of the Sea Symphony is my first call for that symphony now,though!
I seem to have been,somewhat side tracked in my previous post!!!! I hope the Abravanel Schumann Seventh is one of the recordings that is going to be reissued,though (according to vandermolen's friends in the secret service! ). I haven't seen a cd of that. I look forward to his VW No 6,though.
Those Decca eclipse VW releases were nice,though. I was just looking at some of them. This one,for example!

As for dubbing, as a child on holiday in Belgium, I guess, my parents took me to the cinema see 'Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein' dubbed in French with Flemish subtitles. Talking of Welsh have you see that excellent film 'Their Finest'. I thought it excellent. Now, we mustn't hijack this thread cilgwyn so back to VW.

The current issue of the RVW Journal features a whole article on that Decca Eclipse LP of Job - a truly great performance, now on Belart or Australian Decca Eloquence. Of course it's dedicated to Boult who recorded it four times as far as I'm aware. You're quite right about the electronic stereo. I think the back of the LP had a small hole and through it you could tell, according to the colour, if it was electronic stereo or not. The Decca Eclipse Symphony 8 by VW was the only one actually recorded in stereo which is probably why Decca issued it on a 'Legendary Performances' CD, coupled with Rachmaninov's Third Symphony, also conducted by Boult.

No, I won't be dashing out to get the electronic stereo version, or any other, of the  Lehar recital. 

PS 'Frankenstein must be Destroyed' is not one of the finest of the Hammer cycle. One review just commented 'Hear Hear'.

[Oates]

That is the one performance I really liked. It's interesting to have another perspective on these symphonies;but after listening to a couple of Haitink's recordings,I really warm to them. His performance of the Sea Symphony is my first call for that symphony now,though!
I seem to have been,somewhat side tracked in my previous post!!!! I hope the Abravanel Schumann Seventh is one of the recordings that is going to be reissued,though (according to vandermolen's friends in the secret service! ). I haven't seen a cd of that. I look forward to his VW No 6,though.
Those Decca eclipse VW releases were nice,though. I was just looking at some of them. This one,for example!

I feel a bit cheated now to learn that Decca didn't send out an expedition to photograph the Beardmore Glacier especially for the Sinfonia Antartica release! I suppose Castlerigg is more acceptable for Job. I also seem to remember some Decca LP with the Langdale Pikes on the cover but I can't remember which one.

[Biffo]

EMI have been a bit more adventurous over the years. For Boult in 1970 the LP has a watercolour (?) of Mount Erebus by Dr E. A. Wilson, the CD release has icebergs (location unspecified). For Handley (Eminence release) they have ice floes, also unspecified. For Barbirolli CD reissue they have another painting (penguins) by Wilson and more Wilson (sledge hauling) for Haitink. The latter two are from Scott's  earlier expedition (1901-04) and so possibly is the Boult cover as well.

For the recent Andrew Davis recording, Chandos have a photo of Scott's ship, Terra Nova, seen in the distance through an ice cave.

[cilgwyn]

As for dubbing, as a child on holiday in Belgium, I guess, my parents took me to the cinema see 'Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein' dubbed in French with Flemish subtitles. Talking of Welsh have you see that excellent film 'Their Finest'. I thought it excellent. Now, we mustn't hijack this thread cilgwyn so back to VW.

The current issue of the RVW Journal features a whole article on that Decca Eclipse LP of Job - a truly great performance, now on Belart or Australian Decca Eloquence. Of course it's dedicated to Boult who recorded it four times as far as I'm aware. You're quite right about the electronic stereo. I think the back of the LP had a small hole and through it you could tell, according to the colour, if it was electronic stereo or not. The Decca Eclipse Symphony 8 by VW was the only one actually recorded in stereo which is probably why Decca issued it on a 'Legendary Performances' CD, coupled with Rachmaninov's Third Symphony, also conducted by Boult.

No, I won't be dashing out to get the electronic stereo version, or any other, of the  Lehar recital. 

PS 'Frankenstein must be Destroyed' is not one of the finest of the Hammer cycle. One review just commented 'Hear Hear'.

So,they gave you a choice and I may have been listening to the original mono version? That makes me feel better! Electronic stereo was horrible. It just sounded echoey,or someone singing down a drain pipe! I was reading recently how pop albums were released in mono versions,as well,because they had some idea that stereo Lp's wouldn't reproduce satisfactorily on mono record players (like a Dansette,for instance).
I actually do like Abbott and Costello meets Frankenstein. Seeing those classic universal horror monsters drawn into really dumb vaudeville routines is fun. I also like the joke at the end,in the boat,with the Invisible man (voiced by Vincent Price) just when they think they've got away!! In French with Flemish subtitles,though?! Of course,I can't forget torturing my mother and sister by insisting on watching The Water Margin every week on BBC2,when I was a teenager. Miriam Margoyles and a host of other english actors putting on cod Chinese voices. Very un pc,these days! Burt Kwouk as a notable exception,voicing the narration. They made me watch I Claudius,though!!
The dubbers may not have been off the mark about Shane,according to the notes under that video. Apparently,there were quite allot of Welsh speaking cowboys,and gun slingers too! Of course it's not so surprising,really,when you think about it. I'm not so sure whether there would be many Welsh speakers where Baron Frankenstein lives,though?!!!
On that Decca eclipse Lp of VW's Boult. I also like the nifty way the colour at the top matches the hue of the stones. By the way,what is the stone circle pictured? I suppose I should know?! A confession here. I haven't heard that performance. The Belart cd's are usually pretty cheap.

I've been looking at some of the Decca eclipse Lp's on ebay. They really do have some lovely cover photos. Lakes,rivers,mountains,beautiful buildings in breathtaking landscapes or leafy surroundings,always beautifully shot.......and lots of trees and woods. I love woods! And the Holst,you mentioned before! Not the BBCSO performance,but just the kind of cover shot I like. And it's just appropriate somehow? Stonehenge and theories about ancient astronomy (although Holst was inspired by astrology). As to the Bliss Lp. Again,look how the colour at the top matches the hue of the flowers!!

           Oops,some Beethoven,too! But such a nice shot!

[cilgwyn]

I'll remove the photos later,as you just get the jpeg stock photo,or something,when they to ditch the free account! But the Decca eclipse photos were nice. Chandos also had some beautiful landscapes fronting their Bax and Moeran series.

[vandermolen]

I feel a bit cheated now to learn that Decca didn't send out an expedition to photograph the Beardmore Glacier especially for the Sinfonia Antartica release! I suppose Castlerigg is more acceptable for Job. I also seem to remember some Decca LP with the Langdale Pikes on the cover but I can't remember which one.

In view of your name you clearly have a strong emotional tie to Scott's ill-fated expedition.
EMI used one of Edward Wilson's drawings I think for the Haitink recording of Sinfonia Antartica.

[vandermolen]

EMI have been a bit more adventurous over the years. For Boult in 1970 the LP has a watercolour (?) of Mount Erebus by Dr E. A. Wilson, the CD release has icebergs (location unspecified). For Handley (Eminence release) they have ice floes, also unspecified. For Barbirolli CD reissue they have another painting (penguins) by Wilson and more Wilson (sledge hauling) for Haitink. The latter two are from Scott's  earlier expedition (1901-04) and so possibly is the Boult cover as well.

For the recent Andrew Davis recording, Chandos have a photo of Scott's ship, Terra Nova, seen in the distance through an ice cave.

Oh, I didn't read this before posting my message - there was also a bizarre CD containing Boult's early recording with a photo of members of the expedition on the front cover (not the classic one of them all looking dejected at the Pole). The CD is bizarre as it also featured Shackleton making a remarkably uninteresting speech in the upper class English accent also shared by Vaughan Williams. Bax, like Shostakovich had a rather high-pitched, squeaky voice. The CD also featured a 'sing-a-long' song about the Scott expedition. I decided not to join in. Just in case you missed it the song features at the beginning and end of the CD!

[Karl Henning]

[...] The CD also featured a 'sing-a-long' song about the Scott expedition. I decided not to join in.

The things I learn here at GMG 

[vandermolen]

I'll remove the photos later,as you just get the jpeg stock photo,or something,when they to ditch the free account! But the Decca eclipse photos were nice. Chandos also had some beautiful landscapes fronting their Bax and Moeran series.

Cilgwyn, thank you so much for posting those images. I have a strong emotional attachment to the VW Decca Eclipse Boult Symphony 6 as my encounter with it in WH Smith in the Earl's Court Road in c.1971/2 changed my life forever. That speech at the end was just an added bonus. I owned all those LPs apart from Beethoven and recall buying the Bliss when I was working in a school in Harrow in the late 70s or early 80s.

[vandermolen]

The things I learn here at GMG 

'Pounds the table' 

I'm never sure Karl if your dramatic 'pounds the table' interventions are signs of approval or disapproval. In my case it's the former. Look out for that Captain Scott sing-along song.