Steven Martin ([log in to unmask]) wrote:

>While I was looking at all these CDs that I can't afford, I also saw
>a Tring disk of MacKerras conducting Symphony Fantastique, a disk of
>Mackerras conducting Sibelius Symphony #2 and Boult's Philharmonia
>recording of the Planet Suite.  The Boult was a real surprise because it
>is usually the L.S.O.  recording that one sees in stores and I recall
>once hearing that the Philharmonia was perhaps even better than the
>LSO recording.  Is anybody familiar with any of these recordings?

Pretty much anything by Mackerras is worth investigating.  The Sibelius 2
is excellent - and CM is one of the few to use Koussevitsky's alternative
timpani parts in the closing pages (Koussy himself did, of course, in both
his recordings, so did Anthony Collins in the 1950s and Mackerras in his
earlier recording with the LSO; I understand Schmidt-Isserstedt did but
I've never even seen his recording - anyone?)

Boult's 1967 Planets was with the New PO - is the CD guilty of revisionism?
Some certainly prefer to his final, which is with the LPO isn't it? Not
sure I do, and there is a fairly spectacular trumpet clam in Jupiter.

Deryk Barker
[log in to unmask]