EJ Moeran

[Irons]

I see that the next copy of the BBC Music Magazine (called "July" but on sale in the UK from this coming week - mid June) has as its cover disc the Sinaisky/BBC PO Proms performance of the Moeran Symphony from a few years back.  Very fine as I recall.  Parry is named as the 'filler' but the title of the work in question is not given.  Certainly I'll be buying a copy......

So will I. Thanks!

[vandermolen]

The coupling is Parry's 5th Symphony (my favourite of Parry's symphonies) so I'm looking forward to this issue even more:

I like the CD cover image as well - suitably bleak and windswept.

[SymphonicAddict]

Just you reminded me I had found the video of the performance of that symphony uploaded by a kind person on another music forum. I don't know whether the video is still there or not. I had downloaded it because a recording of a work like that is hard to watch elsewhere.

[Irons]

The coupling is Parry's 5th Symphony (my favourite of Parry's symphonies) so I'm looking forward to this issue even more:

I like the CD cover image as well - suitably bleak and windswept.

Does anyone know publication date? Anything to avoid a fool's errand to WH Smith's.

[J]

What's marvelous about Sinaisky's read (posted on YouTube) is how vivid and clear the inner parts and voices of the work are.  You can hear everything going on among the various instrument groups in a way none of the other (more homogenized) recordings approach. 

[Roasted Swan]

Does anyone know publication date? Anything to avoid a fool's errand to WH Smith's.

I think the publication date is tomorrow June 12th.  I live just around the corner from a Smiths so I will go on said errand tomorrow and report back!

[vandermolen]

I think the publication date is tomorrow June 12th.  I live just around the corner from a Smiths so I will go on said errand tomorrow and report back!

Yes, online it says 12th June.

[kyjo]

I found the Sinaisky recording on YouTube: https://youtu.be/Z3cI58UA8wY

I look forward to checking it out. It should be interesting to hear a Russian conductor interpret this masterwork!

[Roasted Swan]

Picked up my copy from Smiths just now - the coupling of the Parry Symphony No.5 is also Sinaisky/BBC PO from the 2010 Proms.  Scary to realise the Moeran is already a decade old - the 2009 Proms!

[J]

Sinaisky's performance is a great one in my judgment, - like no other, and probably my favorite now (displacing Dilkes).  What a strongly characterized interpretation, - you can hear things going on very hard to discern in the other recordings.  Anyone who loves Moeran's Symphony needs to have it.

[Roasted Swan]

In the magazine's "about the cover CD" spiel they make the point that this was the Moeran Symphony's 2nd only performance at a Prom - the previous one being 1938.  Perhaps more surprising is the fact the the accompanying Parry Symphony (as Jeffrey says a great work) is also the 2nd of just two outings at the Proms - which is two more than any other Parry Symphony!  I'm not saying the other 4 are towering masterpieces but at the self-styled "world's greatest classical music festival" I wonder why there is room for Musicals and Jazz (both genres which I love) but not works such as those......

Tangentially and on a bit of a soap-box here.  I think it is scandalous that the BBC is being berated this week for proposing stopping free TV licences for the elderly.  This was a socio-political decision made by a government that has been foisted back onto the BBC.  In the UK do the fuel companies pay the winter fuel allowance on behalf of the government....!? For the BBC to fund this will take £750 million pounds rising to £1 billion - which would mean the loss of much programming including - I have no doubt - much/most of their CM support.  I do NOT dispute the value/importance of providing free licences to the aged and needy but this should not be the responsibility of the organisation involved.

Even more distasteful is the linkage created in some of the press between last week's D-Day memorials and this proposal with headlines along the path of "Veterans protest loss of free TV licence".  People will continue to bash the BBC right up to moment we loose it.......

[vandermolen]

Picked up my copy from Smiths just now - the coupling of the Parry Symphony No.5 is also Sinaisky/BBC PO from the 2010 Proms.  Scary to realise the Moeran is already a decade old - the 2009 Proms!

Picked up mine this morning too and hope to listen to it later today. It's one of several CDs I have where I was actually at the concert (Moeran with Elgar's 2nd if I remember correctly) which is always fun to know. Good to have Greg's endorsement as well.

PS I've now listened to the CD and what a terrific performance! Even better than how I remember it. Sinaisky steers a middle path between Dilkes's more intimate and Boult's more magisterial performances. The main difference to the Dilkes's is the considerably faster scherzo, but I think this works well as a brief sibelian interlude between two powerful movements. For me the most moving part of the symphony is the end of the slow movement but that works very well here. The performance has great drive, urgency and rhythmic intensity. The Parry is also a very fine and moving performance. This is one of my favourite BBC Music Magazine's cover discs, along with a fine VW Symphony 9 from Andrew Davis and a CD of Estonian music featuring Tubin's Third Symphony.

[Roasted Swan]

This is one of my favourite BBC Music Magazine's cover discs, along with a fine VW Symphony 9 from Andrew Davis and a CD of Estonian music featuring Tubin's Third Symphony.

To be fair I think the quality of the BBC Magazine cover discs is very high indeed.  I can think of several (actually many) very fine ones and almost no duds.  My favourites would include a stunning Oramo/Kullervo, Shostakovich Cheryomushki/ Atherton/BBC NOW/Rite of Spring, Tippett/Symphonies 2&3/ Elder Prokofiev October / Hickox & Mackerras Janacek.....

[J]

Both gripped and mesmerized by Sinaisky, - a revelation, - almost like an entirely new work.  Just wonderful.

[vandermolen]

To be fair I think the quality of the BBC Magazine cover discs is very high indeed.  I can think of several (actually many) very fine ones and almost no duds.  My favourites would include a stunning Oramo/Kullervo, Shostakovich Cheryomushki/ Atherton/BBC NOW/Rite of Spring, Tippett/Symphonies 2&3/ Elder Prokofiev October / Hickox & Mackerras Janacek.....

Good point! I should have mentioned a very fine Shostakovich Symphony 11 (Karabits, Bournemouth SO).

[vandermolen]

Both gripped and mesmerized by Sinaisky, - a revelation, - almost like an entirely new work.  Just wonderful.

I agree and I liked the emphatic spacing of the final chords as well.

[Roasted Swan]

Both gripped and mesmerized by Sinaisky, - a revelation, - almost like an entirely new work.  Just wonderful.

First on the listening pile today.....!

[Irons]

Picking my copy up today and after reading posts above - can't wait!

Sound has not been mentioned though and the RAH does have a reputation as difficult in this regard.

Looking forward to the Parry too. Frank Howes has some interesting observations and goes into great depth, "very strong impression of the inspiration that exuded from him". Howes judges Parry as a very important figure, a "catalyst" for what and who would follow.

[Roasted Swan]

I've now listened to the CD and what a terrific performance! Even better than how I remember it. Sinaisky steers a middle path between Dilkes's more intimate and Boult's more magisterial performances. The main difference to the Dilkes's is the considerably faster scherzo, but I think this works well as a brief sibelian interlude between two powerful movements. For me the most moving part of the symphony is the end of the slow movement but that works very well here. The performance has great drive, urgency and rhythmic intensity. The Parry is also a very fine and moving performance. This is one of my favourite BBC Music Magazine's cover discs.

Wholehearted agreement with Vandermolen.  As someone else also mentioned, Sinaisky makes a more marked difference between the urgent and reflective passages to great effect.  In fact I really enjoy his rhapsodic feel in the latter and a darkly brooding - Tapiola-esque - slow movement.  Overall a very impressive performance indeed and great that it is available on CD.

The Parry is just as good - Sinaisky really gets the balance between the the implicit sadness/nobility of the music and the orchestra sounds glorious.  All this does is make me wonder even more why music of this stature by a British composer of this importance has not featured more at a major CM festival in Britain.

My ONLY slight query is the sound of the Moeran compared to the Parry from a year earlier.  I listened to the Moeran first and yes the detail is good but for me the upper strings sound a bit thin and a fraction distanced.  Also the brass sound is not as integrated as I would expect.  Timps and Harp and wind principals very clear with allows some of the detail mentioned elsewhere.  In contrast the Parry is near ideal - rich but detailed with warmth and weight.  The Producer and Engineer are listed as the same but I did wonder if - given that the Moeran was broadcast on TV - whether the sound-rig for TV is slightly different than audio only?  Don't get me wrong it is still very good but for my taste not quite as good.  In any case - a genuine joy to hear both... 3 cheers for the BBC!

[vandermolen]

Wholehearted agreement with Vandermolen.  As someone else also mentioned, Sinaisky makes a more marked difference between the urgent and reflective passages to great effect.  In fact I really enjoy his rhapsodic feel in the latter and a darkly brooding - Tapiola-esque - slow movement.  Overall a very impressive performance indeed and great that it is available on CD.

The Parry is just as good - Sinaisky really gets the balance between the the implicit sadness/nobility of the music and the orchestra sounds glorious.  All this does is make me wonder even more why music of this stature by a British composer of this importance has not featured more at a major CM festival in Britain.

My ONLY slight query is the sound of the Moeran compared to the Parry from a year earlier.  I listened to the Moeran first and yes the detail is good but for me the upper strings sound a bit thin and a fraction distanced.  Also the brass sound is not as integrated as I would expect.  Timps and Harp and wind principals very clear with allows some of the detail mentioned elsewhere.  In contrast the Parry is near ideal - rich but detailed with warmth and weight.  The Producer and Engineer are listed as the same but I did wonder if - given that the Moeran was broadcast on TV - whether the sound-rig for TV is slightly different than audio only?  Don't get me wrong it is still very good but for my taste not quite as good.  In any case - a genuine joy to hear both... 3 cheers for the BBC!

Interesting comments. I listened to both works tonight on my Hi-Fi system (a bit Low-Fi actually) rather than on the portable player. It confirmed my high opinion of the performance of both works. The recording is slightly odd in the Moeran but I also agree with Greg ('J') that it's a bit like listening to a completely different work, such is the impact of Sinaisky's performance of the Moeran. A wonderful CD in all respects.