The Symphonist

Good morning.

A lovely Mozartian moment to start my day 🙏

Not far off my feelings about much of the set.

Bacewicz is great! I like the BBC/Oramo series even better than the (excellent) Borowicz recordings, but both do her splendid symphonies justice.

Sorry, @loveinner.bsky.social, that we hijacked this 🧵. FWIW I much prefer either of Claudio's Berlin sets to Vienna.

Wow! That's a real piece of history.

Photo of album cover, ‘Gustav Holst conducts The Planets’, London Symphony Orchestra. EMI. The HMV Treasury. White letters on red background. In the centre, karge black and white photo of Holst apparently conducting. Either side of the photo decorative flowers in brown and white.

Photo of back of album. It gives details of the piece on the left. The right two thirds of the cover are the album notes, in small writing, by Imogen Holst.

Finding so many treasures in the record collection of my wonderful father-in-law who died recently, aged 90.

Lovely to find that on this recording of Holst conducting The Planets, his daughter, Imogen Holst, wrote the sleeve notes. She was also a composer.

I agree! And I prefer both to the Vienna set by really quite a long way.

And here are the Rome recordings (+ the same #9). Both sets are also available on Spotify and as downloads from @prestomusic.bsky.social. So the earlier set is only 'deleted' on physical media.

Yes. Here's the earlier Berlin cycle on Qobuz. Recordings from 1999-2000.

DG would be lying if they claimed to have withdrawn the earlier Berlin set. They're very much available on streaming services alongside the Rome live recordings.

CLAUDIO ABBADO The Complete Recordings on DG & Decca | Deutsche Grammophon Claudio Abbado inspired levels of commitment and communication from his musicians which resulted in performances and recordings that have stood the test of on Deutsche Grammophon. Listen and buy now.

I found the track list on DG's website and it looks like you're right. www.deutschegrammophon.com/en/catalogue...

That I couldn't tell you. I bow to the geek's superior knowledge.

Which Berlin set? There are two (well, one and eight ninths, the Choral is common to both).

Monday already? I need a drink!

I know, I'm glad they've found a path to continue their Haydn work. Always very stimulating.

Listened to this today and it did the same for me. The performance of the symphony is 🔥🔥🔥, knocks even Boult's own studio account clean out the park.

Sounds like you have plenty of Haydn in your pipeline already 👌

You didn't miss it. This isn't part of the Heidelbergers' Haydn symphony cycle, it's a separate release of other music by Haydn alongside works by his contemporaries, in this case Gyrowetz and Paisiello. I only spotted it a few weeks ago and haven't listened yet, but I will #SoMuchMusicSoLittleTime

YouTube video by George N. Gianopoulos, composer Benjamin Britten - Twelve Variations on a Theme for Piano (1931) [Score-Video]

#TheCompleteBritten #41

12 Variations on a Theme, for piano (1931)

Britten's first piano piece at the RCM tries on a host of stylistic hats in successive variations (John Bridcut hears Satie, Hindemith and Shostakovich) and cocks a few snooks at his composition teacher Ireland's strict rules.

YouTube video by Cartoon Cartoons Looney Tunes Classic | Rhapsody Rabbit | Boomerang Official

For the classical music world, the original is still the best when it comes to a Bad Bunny performing a halftime* show on Super Bowl Sunday. 🦉🏈🎵

#ClassicalMusic #BadBunny #Superbowl
youtube.com/watch?v=WqGE...
*And we’d call it ‘cut time.’

Poster of Thomas Tallis as a rabbit in an unlikely outfit, with a watch that seems to have gone through the washing machine.

On 25 April, my choir will be singing the complete choral works of Thomas Tallis in one day - culminating in his stunning 40-part motet "Spem in Alium".

Do come and listen if you're in Oxford, or watch the livestream. And we'd be hugely grateful for any donations!
www.justgiving.com/campaign/tal...

An E.T. and a boy are looking up in wonder, standing in a forest at night. E.T. and Eliot Thomas (as Kevin) in a scene from the film E.T. THE EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL (1982)

John Williams, #BOTD in 1932, is a master at borrowing music phrases and themes from other composers and forging them into his own creations for his scores. One example of this alchemy is his score for E.T. (1982).
Williams turned to American composer Howard Hanson.
1/6
#filmsky #musicsky #moviesky

My internet is down (thanks, Old Man Winter), so for John Williams' birthday (Feb 8), I'll be reposting some of my earlier threads about the great film composer.
#filmsky #moviesky #filmscores

Wine used to be the only alcohol I drank at home for many years. Now I'm almost exclusively spirits and hardly drink wine at all. No idea why, it's just my changing tastes I guess. I favour boulevardiers in the winter and negronis in the summer.

I enjoyed the hell out of this sometimes cheeky but always entertaining little piece.

All the music I've listened to so far is on my Youtube and Qobuz playlists, linked in this 🧵🔽

YouTube video by George N. Gianopoulos, composer Benjamin Britten - Twelve Variations on a Theme for Piano (1931) [Score-Video]

#TheCompleteBritten #41

12 Variations on a Theme, for piano (1931)

Britten's first piano piece at the RCM tries on a host of stylistic hats in successive variations (John Bridcut hears Satie, Hindemith and Shostakovich) and cocks a few snooks at his composition teacher Ireland's strict rules.

YouTube video by GilPiotr John Shirley-Quirk: The complete "Tit for tat" (Britten)

#TheCompleteBritten #40

Tit for Tat (1928-31, rev. 1968)

in his mid-50s, Britten gathered up and revised "very slightly" five childhood settings of Walter de la Mare. "Once or twice, when the fumblings were too obvious, the experienced middle-aged composer has come to the aid of the beginner."

If that's not worth a boulevardier then I don't know what is.

That's a lot of words in 2 and a half minutes.