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