On An Overgrown Path

Other UK classical music blogs and Sir Paul McCartney are having a Diana moment over the reported closure of EMI's Abbey Road studios. Demands are being made to turn the studios into a museum and performance space, mourning fans are reportedly gathering outside the famous venue, and floral tributes on the railings must follow shortly. All of which is of course errant nonsense. I have already commented here that it is sad to see the inevitable happening . But have my fellow bloggers and Sir Paul failed to notice that things are changing in the music industry? Virtual spaces - performing, recording, and retailing - are rapidly replacing physical spaces. No point in debating whether it is good or bad, it is happening. Another music venue is the last thing London needs. On any one night many of the current classical music venues are dark, and most of the rest are hosting performances of Tchaik 5. Last week it was record shops closing , this week it is recording studios, next week it w...

So Abbey Road studios are not for sale . EMI's owners say there will be a 'revitalisation project' instead. Just like the record label I guess. But the myth continue to grow. Doug Ramsey, a writer I admire and who invariably gets his facts right, tells us : Sir John Barbirolli conducted the premiere performance of Vaughan Williams' Symphony No. 5 at Abbey Road. In fact Ralph Vaughan Williams himself conducted the premiere performance of his Fifth Symphony at a Promenade Concert on 24 June, 1943 in the Royal Albert Hall. Sir John Barbirolli's classic EMI recording of RVW's Fifth, one of the great achievements of the gramophone capturing one of the great achievements of twentieth century symphonic writing, also happened elsewhere. It was made in May 1962 in the Kingsway Hall. My header photo shows Glorious John in the Kingsway Hall control room marking his score at the final climax of the Passacaglia of the symphony during the sessions. Searches indicate that h...

It was Christopher Bishop with whom Sir John Barbirolli was working at the Abbey Road Studios on a day at the height of the Beatle's popularity. As John arrived he saw the famous four and their retinue. 'Is that the Fuzzy Wuzzies?' he asked Christopher, 'because we'd better close the door in case they charge. That anecdote from my post David Munrow on the record reminds us of just what a musical melting pot EMI's Abbey Road Studios were in their heyday. Today comes the not unsurprising news that the iconic studios are for sale . Spot the link ? Image is Studio 1 Abbey Road from music-dna.com . Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

Frederic Chiu 's new recording of the piano music of G. I. Gurjieff/T. de Hartmann Hymns & Dervishes was recorded at Manifold Studios , Pittsboro, NC. In Russia Gurdjieff's circle included Prokofiev, Stravinsky, Diaghilev and Nicholas Roerich , while in America Frank Lloyd Wright was an early enthusiastic evangelist for the multi-faceted mystic. The music of Gurdjieff/Hartmann has a number of distinguished advocates including Keith Jarrett . But Frederic Chiu gives a refreshingly different interpretation that emphasises the music's lyrical rather than calisthenic nature. I already have many recordings of Gurdjieff's music, but I will be returning to Hymns & Dervishes frequently, thanks I suspect in part due to the Tao of acoustics*. Photos 1 to 4 show Manifold Studios, which was designed around the sound and dimensions of a concert grand piano by Wes Lachot , who based his design on the acoustic architecture theories of Gurdjieff's student Frank Llo...

In the Wizard of Bayreuth's bicentennial year Wagner's rarely heard Under the Double Eagle march has been rescued from the archives in a notable new release from Warner Classics. The march is, of course, the work of the Austrian bandmaster and composer J.F. Wagner (1856-1908) and not his more illustrious namesake. But if my nuanced deceit generates some social media buzz about one of the least publicised but most rewarding classical releases of the year, it will have done its job. Under the Double Eagle is one of the slighter words in Warner's retrospective from their newly acquited EMI archive Sir Adrian Boult - the Complete Conductor . I previewed the 10 CD box in August under the headline This Tchaikovsky is the cat's whiskers . Now, having auditioned the new discs, I am moved to pronounce that Sir Adrian's Tchaikovsky surpasses the cat's whiskers - even Ginger's . If you want to hear recorded sound that has never been bettered - period - listen t...

Few musicians have generated such a mixture of respect and revulsion as Herbert von Karajan. It takes Richard Osborne 851 pages in his masterly biography to capture the essence of this extraordinary conductor, entrepreneur and opportunist, and it would be impertinent to even attempt to cover the same ground here. So instead, with the centenary of Karajan's birth falling on April 5, I offer this personal vignette from my time at EMI, which I hope in some small way illustrates the conundrum that was this extraordinary man. During the late 1970s the Machiavellian Karajan had carefully nurtured a deadly rivalry between EMI and his other contract company, Deutsche Grammophon. This meant that EMI had, at very considerable expense, outbid DG for the four act version of Verdi's Don Carlos with José Carreras and Mirella Freni , and Debussy's Pelléas et Méliande with Frederica von Stade and Richard Stilwell . Pélleas was a personal passion of Karajan, and because of this he ...

My recent Tales from the Vienna Woods post prompted me to listen again to the double LP set shown above of Willi Boskovsky directing the Vienna Philharmonic in the 1979 new year's day concert. This Decca release was important for two reasons. It was the last new year concert that Boskovsky led before he retired, and it was the first digital recording released by a major European classical label. The first commercial digital audio recording hardware was marketed by Soundstream in 1976, and early recordings using their system were released by RCA and Telarc. In the UK both Decca and EMI used their own very talented in-house research and development teams at West Hampstead and Hayes respectively to develop digital recorders. EMI's team were based in their famous Central Research Laboratories at Hayes where Alan Blumlein had developed stereo recording and Isaac Schoenberg had developed the first generation 405 line TV system used by the BBC. After leaving the BBC I worke...

In David Hepworth's recommended history of EMI's Abbey Road studios he makes an observation that may just hold the key to unlocking the new younger audience that classical music has sought for so long in vain. Writing about the increasing importance of pop music in late 1950s Hepworth explains that "whereas the people working in classical music wanted to record music, the people in pop increasingly wanted to record sounds". The ultimate example of studio-created sound taking priority over music culminated in the seminal “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band" which  took five-and-a-half months of sound-shaping at Abbey Road for the album's13 tracks to be completed. Classical dogma dictates that the music takes priority - note perfect interpretations, historically informed performances, pedigree of the musician, concert hall etiquette etc. In the classical world sound is the servant of music, as in the never-ending search for the acoustically perfect...

Litter pickers working on the summit of Britain's highest mountain, Ben Nevis , have made a startling discovery: a grand piano buried in scree below the peak. The volunteers were winkling cans and plastic bags from rock crevices when they spotted a large, finely varnished length of wood. Shifting granite boulders, they discovered first the top of the piano, then the entire frame complete with stringboard and pedals. "Our guys couldn't believe their eyes," said Nigel Hawkins, director of the John Muir Trust , which maintains the most visited stretch of the 1.3 km (4,418ft) peak near Fort William. "At first they thought it was just the wooden casing, but then they found the whole cast-iron frame complete with strings." The piano was dug out intact by 15 volunteers who were clearing an area about 200 metres from the summit. The trust is now appealing for information to unearth the piano's history - from the Guardian Now Playing - Richard Strauss' Alpi...

Two members of the original Third Ear Band were classically trained, Paul Minns on oboe and recorder, and Richard Coff violin and viola. With founding force Glen Sweeney on hand drums and tabla, and Mel Davis on cello they cut the bands first two legendary all-acoustic albums Alchemy and Elements in 1969 and 1970. For their equally legendary 1972 soundtrack for Roman Polanski's Macbeth , Richard Coff was replaced by another violinist from a classical background Simon House , and Royal College of Music cello graduate Paul Buckmaster  joined the band*. This classical connection was reflected in the venues where the Third Ear Band played, which included the Purcell Room, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Festival Hall - where they appeared with musique concrète exponent Bernard Parmegiani  - and the Royal Albert Hall All three albums were released on EMI's newly-formed Harvest label aimed at the emerging progressive rock market. However the Third Ear Band's iconoclastic style ...

Instant music, film and TV programme gratification. You’re in a coffee shop and you hear a song you just have to have. Or you’re in an airport wishing you had a good film to watch. With Wi-Fi access and one tap of the iTunes icon, you can discover new music, films to buy or rent, TV programmes, and podcasts. Then download it all wirelessly, right to your iPad. Wherever you happen to be. Audiophile porn is from October 1974 Hi - Fi News & Record Review magazine. Text quote is from the website of the newly launched iPad . Sound quality may not have improved but the cost of music storage has certainly come down. That 'affordable' Revox reel-to-reel tape recorder sold for £649 ($998, €744) in 1974. When adjusted to current values that £749 would probably buy Abbey Road Studios , or even EMI , today. Talking of which, see Abbey Road's state of the art recording technology here . In the age of instant music gratification does the sound matter anymore ? Any copyrighted materi...

As classical music continues its increasingly frantic search for a new and larger audience it is worth revisiting the success of the K-Tel label's Classic Rock albums in the 1970s and 80s. The simple formula of a world class orchestra - the London Symphony - playing skillfully crafted arrangements of rock albums could not fail; to sample the flavour of Classic Rock watch the retro TV commercial via this link . The first album in the series was released in 1978 and included arrangements of Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds, A Whiter Shade of Pale, and Bohemian Rhapsody. It reached number 3 in the album chart - no specialist music charts in those days - and remained in the best seller lists for a remarkable 39 weeks, achieving platinum disc status. Classic Rock may not have been to the purists' tastes, but the project cleverly combined integrity with commercial flair: the first album was recorded at EMI's iconic Abbey Road studio and the organist on A Whiter Shade of Pale w...

'David Munrow and the Early Music Consort of London transformed our view of medieval music. The impact of their performances far surparssed any that had gone before: by demonstrating how medieval music could sound normal, they created a niche for it in the concert hall and on record that it has never lost.' F rom Daniel Leech-Wilkinson's notes for Music of the Gothic era 2006 bring the thirtieth anniversary of the death of David Munrow. His contribution to the acceptance, understanding and performance of early music almost defies summary. He was born in 1942, and learnt the bassoon and recorder as a child. Between school and university he travelled and taught in South America , and started the collection of ethnic instruments that were to give him, and the world, a new perspective on early music making. He read English at Pembroke College , Cambridge, and was encouraged by Thurston Dart to take an active role in the music-making of that most musical of cities. It was ...

'David Munrow and the Early Music Consort of London transformed our view of medieval music. The impact of their performances far surparssed any that had gone before: by demonstrating how medieval music could sound normal, they created a niche for it in the concert hall and on record that it has never lost' ~ From Daniel Leech-Wilkinson's notes for Music of the Gothic era May 15 2007 is the thirty-first anniversary of the death of David Munrow. His contribution to the acceptance, understanding and performance of early music almost defies summary. He was born in 1942, and learnt the bassoon and recorder as a child. Between school and university he travelled and taught in South America , and started the collection of ethnic instruments that were to give him, and the world, a new perspective on early music making. He read English at Pembroke College , Cambridge, and was encouraged by Thurston Dart to take an active role in the music-making of that most musical of cities. ...