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
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