On An Overgrown Path

" One of the biggest phenomena in my time was Toscanini. England, for one, certainly went crazy for him - so much so that he was an absolute pest as far as I was concerned. First and foremost, I did not like his conducting. I have to give him credit for the fact that he got an incredible clarity out of the orchestra. But it was absolutely without humanity, even rigid. If Toscanini had been in one hall and Beecham in another I would have gone to see Beecham any day. Toscanini seemed to have a power over people and could do no wrong. On one occasion he snatched the camera from a journalist, threw it to the ground, and stamped on it! However it was more than ones' life was worth to criticize Toscanini or to say you didn't like him. You would have to defend yourself to a degree that I didn't feel like doing. One summer I was doing a summer school in Santa Barbara, California with Schoenberg. One day I gathered my courage and asked him, "Arnold, what do you think of ...

In today’s Evening Standard and online Norman Lebrecht declares ‘until bloggers deliver hard facts … paid for newspapers will continue to set the standard as the only show in town’ and goes on to take a swipe at On An Overgrown Path’s story about the BBC King’s College broadcast . Now I don’t think for a moment Stormin’ Norman has an axe to grind even if he does write for a paid for newspaper and presents a BBC Radio 3 programme , but his blustering cannot be ignored. Among the many accusations he flings around are that I do not deliver hard facts, I trade in unchecked trivia, and I did not check my story with the BBC, so let's look at these points. Not hard facts - I reported that the BBC had announced a 1956 Argo commercial recording as a 1954 BBC broadcast. Here is a transcript from the broadcast of the presenters introduction: ' This week's broadcast of choral evensong.... Today, a stunning broadcast from 1954, a service from the chapel of King's College Ca...

My mention of Benjamin Britten's The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra in my recent article about his Violin Concerto reminded me of this little story told in John Bridcut's Britten's Children : - During what was intended as a spoken interview in 2003, a transported David Hemmings (left) sang, hummed and groaned his way through the Young Person's Guide (which he remembered Ben playing to him the first time he visited Aldeburgh as a boy), and as he reached the triumphant return of the theme in the brass, he cried out: 'That's the champagne moment! Fucking great!' . * Britten created the role of Miles in his opera The Turn of the Screw for the twelve year old David Hemmings, and Hemmings sung the part in the premiere at La Fenice in Venice in 1954. He also sung in, and recorded, The Little Sweep and Saint Nicholas with Britten. But eventually Hemmings became another one of Britten's 'corpses'. His voice broke during a performance...

King's College Choir, Cambridge is one of the glories of the English choral tradition. They are best known for their many acclaimed recordings of the mainstream choral repertoire, but they also sing choral evensong daily in the College Chapel . There are fewer recordings of choral evensong in King's, but one of the classics was made in 1956 by Argo under the direction of Boris Ord who was organist and choirmaster there between 1929 and 1957, and we are fortunate that this is still in the catalogue as Belart CD120 (see sleeve below). The many students of the King's choral tradition were therefore delighted, and surprised, when the BBC announced that as part of the 80th anniversary celebrations of their choral evensong programme they were to broadcast on October 25th 2006 "a 1950s archive broadcast from the Chapel of King's College, Cambridge." The surprise from King's experts was because it was not known that such a recording existed. When the program...

There are an awful lot of music blogs out there, but not many of them are written by top-flight performing musicians, yet alone one who tomorrow gives the first performance of an important work by a leading living composer. Nicholas Daniel (left) has built quite a reputation as principal oboe with the Britten Sinfonia , and as a conductor. Tomorrow (November 6) Daniel and the Britten Sinfonia give the world premiere of John Tavener's oboe concert Kaleidoscopes at London's Queen Elizabeth Hall. The new work is Tavener's tribute to Mozart; but, as well as an oboe soloist and chamber orchestra, the score calls for the distinctly non-Mozartian forces of a very large gong and four Tibetan temple bowls! Nicholas Daniel is blogging in the run up to the first performance, and here are his latest entries: 03 November 2006 - later I think the top Bb may be in! Am going to surprise John with at the rehearsal and see what he says. Terrible risk! I love risk! If only my Mother In ...

Lots of interest in John Dowland, Sting et al , so it is worth revisiting the following article which was published On An Overgrown Path in May 2005: - Recent interesting exchanges online with Richard Friedman and Will Benton about the merits (or otherwise) of 'non-authentic interpretations' by the Hilliard Ensemble and Jan Garbarek with Officium (see Officium live - a triumph of music theatre ) and Jacques Loussier (see Jacques Loussier close up ) prompts me to sing the praises of a fascinating 'interpretation' of John Dowland's Lachrymae by the jazz pianist, 'envelope pusher', cellist, and accordion player Huw Warren (above). He is better known for his work with innovative jazz group Perfect Houseplants who have worked with violinist Andrew Manze , recorder player Pamela Thorby , and early music vocal ensemble the Orlando Consort . The recording by Huw Warren I have returned to many times is Infinite Riches in a Little Room . (The title comes from Ch...

Bloomberg.com reports - International Creative Management , one of the world's largest talent agencies representing actors, writers and musicians, said it will sell its classical music division to focus on its core entertainment business. The firm's ICM Artists unit in New York will be acquired by a group of eight employees led by IMCA President and Chief Executive Officer David Foster and Executive Vice President and Managing Partner Byron Gustafson. Discussions about a buyout began in July, and Foster said the purchase will provide more "financial independence'' and more flexibility for classical music management - "the big difference with classical music is that you spend a lot of time with immortal, creative works, whether it's Beethoven's symphonies or Verdi's operas, so the artists' careers in this field are much, much, much, much longer. '' ICMA has been a unit of Beverly Hills, California-based ICM since 1975. Its artist roste...