RIP Neville Marriner

[Jay F]

Just by coincidence, he conducted both my first classical LP, Music for the Royal Fireworks/Water Music, and my one of my first three classical CDs, Mozart's Piano Concertos 23 & 27. I didn't become a classical collector until I started buying CDs, however.

[Bogey]

Well, I had even asked him for autograph. I was sixteen and I was so excited! There was the common opinion in my country then that the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields was the best chamber orchestra in the world. So when I was accidentaly in the capital of my country and noticed that the Academy would play there for the second time in the history I bought the ticket though it was much too expensive for me. And what the magic evening it was! Especially performance of the Beethoven Symphony No.2 was for me the revelation. The Final was much more energetic end full of tryumph I had ever dreamed before. Other works the Academy played then were Britten Variations on the Theme of Frank Bridge and Vaughan Williams The Lark Ascending (with Iona Brown as soloist). The last was probably Mozart Prague Symphony. I'm not quite sure as it was so many years ago. Then when the concert was over I saw the queue of people wanting to thank and ask for autograph so I decided to join it.

(I can remember only two autographs I collected in my life. The other one was of Zuzana Ruzickova on the cover of never listened before her Golberg Variations LP. I bought it day before and then I saw the poster that there would be a concert of Ruzickova playing this work next day. But I coudn't listen to it before as it was my fourth day of living in the student dormitory in the capital and my equimpent was still in my home.)

But I have a possibility to see Neville Mariner once again almost thirty years after that concert of Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields. I was wandering through the streets of the Old Town in the main city of the region where I spend my childhood and came to the greatest gothic churc in it. And there was the rehearsal of the War Requiem in it with sir Neville as conductor of the local orchestra. But it was in the middle of the course and the work was not known to me (this is probaly the strangest thing in my history as the listener - I never heard the whole War Requiem) so I decided rather to go for more sightseeing. But was so fine to double my trip to the past, city that had been so important for me years ago but I had no too much possiblities to visit it since and then the hero of one of most exciting music experiences of my life in it.

Outstanding story. Thanks for taking the time to share it.

[Marc]

I've got to know him through Amadeus. Will be missed but as has been already said – what a career!

https://www.youtube.com/v/92BVug_TikI

Yes, he's my Amadeus Hero, too.

Rest in peace, Sir Neville.

[PerfectWagnerite]

A much better conductor than he was sometimes given credit for. A musician who never let his own idiosyncrasies get in the way of the music. For example these recordings are exemplary, especially the Requiem which I feel achieves a level of greatness I have not heard:

[Jay F]

I never got around to buying the entire Brendel/Marriner box set of Mozart's Piano Concertos. I already had their CD of Nos. 23 and 27, plus others by Uchida/Tate, Gulda/Abbado, and Perahia on CD, plus Anda on cassette (I really liked Mozart's Piano Concertos right away), so paying $200 (+/-) for the entire set seemed overly extravagant. I bought both sets of Philips twofers back in the 2000s to give to a friend. I never bought them for myself, as some of the concertos were split on different discs, which drove me crazy on No. 22 in particular.

But today, finally, after 29 years, after reading yesterday of the death of Sir Neville, I broke down and bought a copy. $23.44 + 3.99 on Amazon. As a bonus, none of the concertos is split on two discs, and concertos 18-27 are sequenced in numerical order (admittedly something that mattered more in the CD era, but still...)

[asin]B002CRJWXA[/asin]

You get 10 CDs:

1. Concertos 5, 6, and 10

2. Concertos 7, 8, 11

3.  Concertos 9, 12

4. Concertos 13, 17

5. Concertos 14, 15, 16

6. Concertos 18, 19

7. Concertos 20, 21

8. Concertos 22, 23

9. Concertos 24, 25

10. Concertos 26, 27

[Scion7]

 

[Vaulted]

I will always be grateful for Marriner's complete set of the Mozart symphonies. His utterly complete Schubert set contains some revelations. And I was reminded by previous posters that he made some outstanding recordings of RVW.

It is a shame his reputation declined in later years. He was not more inconsistent than many other conductors who have been called "great". And dare I admit I have a great curiosity to hear his Beethoven cycle?

RIP Neville. Thanks for the great music.

[MishaK]

I saw Marriner conduct on tour with ASMIF in Cologne (with Hilary Hahn playing the Stravinsky) circa 2004. Sir Neville wore bright red socks. Always keepin' it classy. RIP

Incidentally, I was in Minneapolis the weekend before last to hear Skrowaczewski conduct Bruckner 8 (WOW - just wow). Principal trumpet Manny Laureano gave a little speech before the concert to dedicate this performance to Sir Neville who succeeded Skrowaczewski as music director in 1979 (!) and who hired Laureano at the time.

[Marc]

I saw Marriner conduct on tour with ASMIF in Cologne (with Hilary Hahn playing the Stravinsky) circa 2004. Sir Neville wore bright red socks. Always keepin' it classy. RIP

Incidentally, I was in Minneapolis the weekend before last to hear Skrowaczewski conduct Bruckner 8 (WOW - just wow). Principal trumpet Manny Laureano gave a little speech before the concert to dedicate this performance to Sir Neville who succeeded Skrowaczewski as music director in 1979 (!) and who hired Laureano at the time.

Laureano: very friendly man. Spoke to him once in the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, when I was an early visitor and the brass players of the Minnesota Ochestra were still doing some rehearsing to get their lips and lungs in the right 'shape' for Mahler 5. Nice to read that Sir Neville was the one who appointed him.