Robert Palmer ([log in to unmask]) wrote:

>I wish I could hear the Ancerl version; he was a wonderful conductor.  I
>am very intrigued by the possibility of a Gergiev version.  It could be
>white-hot.

Ancerl is indeed spectacular - pssibly the fastest ever 2nd movement.  Alas
all I have is a tape copy of a friend's LP.

I recall a couple of incandescent Prom performances of this conducted by
George Hurst in the 1960s.  One memorable one was on the last Thursday of
the season.  The BBC SO played their hearts out - so much so that on the
next night, by tradition Beethoven 9, the poor horns were all over the
place in the slow movement.

And the tradition continues, judging by the blinder of a performance Mark
Elder wrought at this year's Proms.

BTW, sonically indifferent and played on a piano that isn't completely in
tune at the beginning and gets less so, the 1955 (?) four-hand recording
by Shostakovich and Vainberg has to be heard to be believed.  It was on
Russian Revelation, but I gather this label is no more, it has gone to meet
its maker, run down the curtain and joined the choir invisibule, you get my
drift.

Deryk Barker
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