G'day from sunny Surrey

[jazzpiano]

Welcome Bob from another newbie. Very well written, but hard to focus on, what with that lovely car pic. We get one little British car show in the park here each summer where I go to salivate and that's it.
On to the Music: I hope we get to discuss music at some point as my favorites are jazz and classical - and 20th c. British are one of the forms that really got the bug to bite.

Best,
Barry

[morris_minor]

Thanks Barry!

Re British music - Walton is a special favourite. Ever since I first heard his 1st Symphony at one of Tod Handley's concerts I've become obsessed by it, getting every recording of I can lay my hands on - about 20 so far. Armed with the score I (presumptuously!) dissect the performances to try and find perfection. It's perhaps telling that it's a young American conductor who IMHO gets closest - Andre Previn in 1966 with his new orchestra, the LSO.

Talking of the LSO, they came to christen the new local concert hall with Valery Gergiev and a young Russian pianist. Halfway through the first movement of Tchaikovsky's 1st piano concerto the lights failed in the hall and apart from some very dim emergency lighting over the auditorium it was virtually pitch black. But professional to the end they kept on playing. A few musicians whipped out mobile phones and placed them on their music stands to shed a little bit of light. Soon some stage hands came on with a few torches and the music continued to the end of the movement. What professionalism! While the orchestra relocated to the pub across the road the pianist gave an impromptu Chopin recital with Gergiev holding a torch for him over the keyboard. Not something Barbican audiences would have experienced.

The LSO's flute player wrote an entertaining blog post on the evening's fun and games.

Edit: if the link doesn't work go to the blog home page and locate link "Bad light stops play - eventually" . Can't seem to paste the right URL with my iPad

Try this

[jazzpiano]

Thank you for the Walton recommendation - he is one of the British composers I know little of. My fondest memories of record buying and new composer discoveries are from the 70s. I was exposed by a friend to Vaughan Williams via Boult's EMI recordings and later on my own discovered Barbirolli's great "Conducts English String Music" LP. Perhaps the most beautiful, intimate string playing I have ever heard. The 70s was a great period for myself - the "collectors", here at least, snubbed their noses at the music on Argo, late EMI, most Lyrita, etc. because it was not from the 50s, not old original pressings, not collectible enough... This was (and still is) a boon to the real music lover vs the label/matrix number collector. For $10 - $12 you could play and explore and I don't think there's anything more fun for the music lover than discovering great new music. This keeps the focus where it should be - on the music. I could go on but I'll just list a few of my favorite British composers for you (other than RVW): Britten, Finzi, Butterworth, Elgar.

Best,
Barry

[MaccaAu]

Hi Bob welcome to AOS, i ama newbie xD from Aussie land

[morris_minor]

Hi Bob welcome to AOS, i ama newbie xD from Aussie land

Hi Sam,

Thanks! You gotta love the web - I've put a few posts on an Aussie forum (stereo.net.au). It's good to get a perspective on things from other parts of the world; some things different, others very much the same!

Cheers,
Bob

[morris_minor]

Thank you for the Walton recommendation - he is one of the British composers I know little of. My fondest memories of record buying and new composer discoveries are from the 70s. I was exposed by a friend to Vaughan Williams via Boult's EMI recordings and later on my own discovered Barbirolli's great "Conducts English String Music" LP. Perhaps the most beautiful, intimate string playing I have ever heard. The 70s was a great period for myself - the "collectors", here at least, snubbed their noses at the music on Argo, late EMI, most Lyrita, etc. because it was not from the 50s, not old original pressings, not collectible enough... This was (and still is) a boon to the real music lover vs the label/matrix number collector. For $10 - $12 you could play and explore and I don't think there's anything more fun for the music lover than discovering great new music. This keeps the focus where it should be - on the music. I could go on but I'll just list a few of my favorite British composers for you (other than RVW): Britten, Finzi, Butterworth, Elgar.

Best,
Barry

If you like Elgar and Britten then Walton should be right up your street. He wasn't prolific, but put out some real gems. The oratorio Belshazzar's Feast is a brilliantly exciting piece (Walton's own recording with the Philharmonia, or Previn/LSO are IMHO best here). He composed some good film music for Olivier's Shakespeare films (eg Henry V), and then there's the Coronation Marches (outdoing Elgar in the pomp and circumstance stakes, as it were) and the chameleon of a piece "Facade". In its original form for reciter and small chamber group there's literally nothing like it!

I believe the Barbirolli English String music disc (ASD521) was the longest issue ever to remain at full price in the catalogue. I inherited a mono and stereo version from my Dad, bought the CD, and then splashed out on a 180gm Speakers Corner reissue - simply perfect music making. The RVW Tallis has never sounded better.

So much music .. so little time!

Cheers,
Bob

[jazzpiano]

G'Day Bob,

Just wanted to pop in and let you know that there is a separate Classical sub-forum under Musical Compositions - I think I'm the only one whose commented here recently.
Also, under Musical Compositions is a thread entitled 'Classical Music for People who Don't Like Classical Music'. Lastly, I am a big jazz fan, a little more-so than classical even. Just a few faves (the list would be huge) are: Gerry Mulligan, Bud Powell, Billie Holiday, The Modern Jazz Quartet, Thelonious Monk, Jimmy Rowles, Art Tatum... oh forget it, I gotta stop now, I can feel the list exploding in my head.

Best,
Barry

[jazzpiano]

Bob, I mis-posted. The "... for people who don't like classical music" thread is in the classical sub-forum.

~Barry

[morris_minor]

I did think this thread was going off topic

I'll post over the way soon.

Meanwhile am listening to Beady Belle from Norway. The first album "Home". Jazzy vocals, bit of electronica, a sitar, plus a good beat. Nice stuff

[MaccaAu]

Hi Sam,

Thanks! You gotta love the web - I've put a few posts on an Aussie forum (stereo.net.au). It's good to get a perspective on things from other parts of the world; some things different, others very much the same!

Cheers,
Bob

Hi Bob,
That is a good forum i am on that forum also haven been in awhile. I do love the web also, like today horribly humid and warm, yet in the UK would be getting close to winter. Uk ebay comes up with some good stuff, i got my Marantz cd player from there, it was already modded, and amazed me was sent DHL arrived in about 4 days !

cheers
Sam