Deryk Barker replies to Glenn Miller:

>>... I would look for the London Chamber Orchestra, Warren-Green cond.
>>on Virgin/EMI.  ...  I am not a big fan of these works but I do enjoy
>>my disc from time to time and I might add, it received a rosette in the
>>Penguin Guide.  However there are others (the English labels) that also
>>are very good--ASMF, Marriner(old favorite) and the rest I have not
>>heard such as Barbirolli(not sure if you can get the Lark Ascending).
>
>And that Penguin rosette was one of the things that undermined my
>respect for the guide.  Warren-Green's disc is OK, but Barbirolli's
>(which used to have the rosette in earlier editions of the PG) is in an
>entirely different class.  The Tallis Fantasia on that set is the finest
>I've ever heard and the Elgar Introduction & Allegro is IMHO only matched
>by Barbirolli's own 1950s recording.

Second that.  I would also add that the ASMF Marriner is one of the
weakest VW discs I know.  I was *very* disappointed.  My favorite Lark
Ascending is EMI Boult with Hugh Bean (747218-2).  I don't know whether
the disc is still available, but it does have good performances of
other VW lollipops: In the Fen Country, Norfolk Rhapsody No.  1, the
Jacobs-orchestrated English Folk Song Suite, Fantasia on Greensleeves,
and a kick-butt account of the *original* Serenade to Music with 16 solo
singers (including Norma Burrowes, Sheila Armstrong, Susan Longfield,
Shirley Minty, Meriel Dickinson, Ian Partridge, John Carol Case, John
Noble, and Christopher Keyte).

I would add this rough guide.

Brilliant VW Conductors: Barbirolli, Mitropoulos
Very Good to Great VW Conductors: Boult, Hickox
Variable VW Conductors: Previn, Haitink

I'm not a fan of Bryden Thomson's VW -- too syrupy.  Marriner's VW is
stodgy.

Steve Schwartz