Desert Island Discs
Desert Island Discs: Eduard van Beinum and the Concertgebouw Orchestra: Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra
Decca Recording Details: After its first appearance on LP in the early 1950s, Eduard van Beinum and the Concertgebouw’s extraordinary account of Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra was eclipsed, at least on store shelves, by newer recordings, particularly with the advent of stereo. Its very long absence from the catalog – there was no subsequent Ace…
Jennifer Vyvyan: Her 8 selected recordings, from the BBC broadcast of 18 July 1966
Jennifer Vyvyan’s Favorite of her 8 selections More history on the “Desert Island Discs” program and pictures in Issue 6 – available in your subscriber account – on page 160.
Desert Island Discs: Ernest’s Pick January 2023
Ernest’s Picks Happy New Year to all our readers! I hope 2022 was a fruitful year for all our collectors and music lovers, and I wish you a new year filled with music and new collections! In this month’s “Ernest’s Picks” the writer tips his hat – or, more appropriately, his beret – to fellow…
Desert Island Discs: Ernest’s Picks – Fall 2022
We are not short on reportages about the vinyl revival of our time. The discussion, however, tends towards the quality of the recorded sound, from trend-following crowd buying into the “scratchy” and the “crackle” to the fanatics investing north of six-digit figures into Burmester and Aesthetix and TechDAS assortments. Back to earth: can we just…
Desert Island Discs: Ernest’s Picks – Summer 2022
Pianists are often blamed for having a myopic view of music history, in that we all-too-often focus only on piano repertoire. This is not an article to dispute any of that. Unremorsefully guilty, as charged. Being a pianist and an all-round consummate lover of the piano, I approach the repertoire with dog-like dedication, and with…
Sir John Barbirolli & The Hallé Orchestra: Claude Debussy’s La Mer
According to author Raymond Holden’s monumental Barbirolli: A Chronicle of a Career, Barbirolli led Debussy’s La Mer in concert on 175 occasions, with numerous orchestras, among the earliest being a 17 January 1929 concert with the Royal Philharmonic Society. At age 29, he was the youngest conductor the Society had ever engaged. Moreover, La Mer…
Sixten Ehrling and the Stockholm RSO-Jean Sibelius Symphony No. 2
The 23 February 1952 issue of “The Billboard”, forerunner of today’s Billboard magazine, announced the recording of an integral cycle of Sibelius’ 7 Symphonies (see right). The composer was still living at that time and the project was slated for completion (with LPs on store shelves) by the opening of the 1952 Olympic Games in…