Download Britten: Quartet No. 2, by the Zorian String Quartet (HMV, 1946)

[harpsichordian]

Here's the premiere recording of one of Benjamin Britten's finest
works, his String Quartet No. 2 in C, Op. 36. composed in 1945 to mark
the 250th anniversary of the death of Henry Purcell. This features
the work's first performers, the Zorian String Quartet (Olive Zorian
and Marjorie Lavers, violins; Winifred Copperwheat, viola; and Norina
Semino, cello) and was recorded, as the labels proclaim proudly,
"under the supervision of the composer," and issued on HMV C 3536
through C 3539. I'm not sure of the exact date, but its matrices (2EA
11283-2/4-1/5-2/6-1/7-1/8-2/9-2) fall between those of Elisabeth
Schumann's recording of "Frauenliebe- und Leben" (2EA 11274/8) and 3
Brahms sides by Edwin Fischer (2EA 11294/6). The former was begun
October 9, 1946, and the latter were made on October 15, so the
Britten recording must have at least been begun between these two
dates. If so, it would mean that the work was recorded less than a
year after its premiere (on Nov. 21, 1945) - an unprecedentedly short
time for a new piece, especially a chamber work.

To the best of my knowledge, this recording has never been reissued on
LP or CD - unlike its filler. This is the famous recording of
Purcell's Fantasia Upon One Note, in which the Zorian Quartet is
joined by Britten in his only recording as a violist, playing the "one
note" of the title, This piece, chosen by Britten himself as the
filler for this set, was recorded November 4, 1946 (matrix: 2EA
11334-1) and turned up in 1980 on an EMI double LP gatefold featuring
early Pears-Britten recordings.

http://www.mediafire.com/?mkgt5xbkivc

Enjoy!

Best wishes,
Bryan Bishop

[bruckner_1]

These works are totally new to me and I appreciate having this
recording. Thanks so much!

Jeff from WI

[Jon Alan Conrad]

As devoted I am to Britten's second quartet, I had no idea that this
recording even existed! (I have a dozen others.) This is hugely
interesting -- thank you.

JAC

[Tom Amolad]

Thanks so uch for posting this, Brian. Between your and Thomas's
postings and the new June listings at MDT, there's now a major cache
of exciting, newly available Britten stuff out there. MDT has six,
count 'em, six major and exciting Britten releases listed for next
month:

- Four DVDS from the BBC: 1) The 1970 Television PETER GRIMES, with
Pears and Harper (Cond. Britten; previously only available from
mediocre TV tapings). I remember Pears doing a lot better than I'd
expected here, given the late date; 2) A BILLY BUDD from 1966, with
Pears and Glassop (cond. Mackerras); 3) A Britten-conducted IDOMENEO
(this is the one I'm most skeptical of, given the cast); and 4) a DVD
featuring a Pears/Britten WINTERREISE recital and another recital with
Britten's folksong settings.

- Hickox's new recording of OWEN WINGRAVE.

- A complete ALBERT HERRING recording from 1949, with what appear to
be most of the original cast. Frankly, I'd never even heard that this
existed (though I'd heard that bits and pieces survived). By the time
of the Decca recording, Pears really was much too old, so I'm really
looking forward to hearing this one. The bad news: it's on Nimbus...

Tom

[Matthew B. Tepper]

Tom Amolad <amo...@gmail.com> appears to have caused the following letters
to be typed in news:b60d4cac-6250-4a47-bb8d-
def6c0...@k10g2000prm.googlegroups.com:

> - A complete ALBERT HERRING recording from 1949, with what appear to be
> most of the original cast. Frankly, I'd never even heard that this existed
> (though I'd heard that bits and pieces survived). By the time of the Decca
> recording, Pears really was much too old, so I'm really looking forward to
> hearing this one. The bad news: it's on Nimbus...

Bloody(oody)(oody)(oody)(oody) hell(ell)(ell)(ell)(ell)!

I remember having seen the BBC film of "Owen Wingrave" broadcast on PBS many
many years ago when I was a teenager. (Those are two ancient things for you:
my having been a teenager, and PBS broadcasting something operatic that isn't
a flashy production from the Met).

--
Matthew B. Tepper: WWW, science fiction, classical music, ducks!
My personal home page -- http://home.earthlink.net/~oy/index.html
My main music page --- http://home.earthlink.net/~oy/berlioz.html
To write to me, do for my address what Androcles did for the lion
War is Peace. ** Freedom is Slavery. ** It's all Napster's fault!

[Jon Alan Conrad]

I couldn't manage to see the WINGRAVE (I was in boot camp at the time
-- try that for an incongruous image), but I did see the PETER GRIMES
telecast just mentioned, from that same era. And it was wonderful. I'm
glad it is finally to be issued officially, as it is to my mind the
finest of the video productions of that opera. (As with WINGRAVE, they
turned the Maltings into a TV studio and built sets within it. The
orchestra was present offscreen -- no lip-synching.)

JAC

[Matthew B. Tepper]

Jon Alan Conrad <con...@udel.edu> appears to have caused the following
letters to be typed in news:93fe0840-6516-4ae2-8e90-
7eb15e...@b64g2000hsa.googlegroups.com:

Hooray for no lip-synching. There have been too many videos where the voices
of real singers have had the faces of purty actors superimposed over them.

[Tom Amolad]

I have a black-market copy of the WINGRAVE, and while I haven't
watched it in a while, my recollection is that the visual conception
isn't perhaps ideal for they style of the opera. The set is much more
cluttered than I had always conceived of it. Somewhere, I read a
piece by Mifanwy Piper (the opera's librettist) about her
recollections of the shoot. She was particularly amused by a chap
running around, spraying cobwebs out of an aerosol can or some such,
because, as it was explained to her, it's a ghost story, so there must
be cobwebs, right?

The GRIMES, as you say, is first-rate.

Tom

[ewan.mc...@btinternet.com]

Hi
Britten Pears Library catalogue (http://webhotel.mikromarc.no/bpl/eng/
mikromarc/ssearch.idc?dbAlias=bpl&UnitId=0) has following details
about this recording

Britten, Benjamin, 1913-1976 [Quartets, strings, no. 2, op. 36, C
major]
String quartet : no. 2 in C, op. 36 / (Benjamin Britten). - [Hayes] :
Gramophone Co., Ltd. : HMV, [1947]. - on 7 sides of 4 sound discs (ca.
30 min.) : analogue, 78 rpm, mono ; 12 in.

Recorded under the supervision of the composer
PERFORMERS: Zorian String Quartet
DATE OF RECORDING: 46.11.05, 46.11.06, 46.11.07 at EMI Studio No. 3,
Abbey Road, London; engineer: Robert Beckett
Plate/Catalogue number: HMV C.7651, C.7653, C.7654 Plate/Catalogue
number: 2EA 11283-2, 2EA 11285-2, 2EA 11286-1, 2EA 11287-1, 2EA
11288-2
With: Fantasia on one note (Purcell)

Thanks for posting this download!
Best wishes
Ewan McCormick

[harpsichordian]

On May 29, 6:54 pm, ewan.mccorm...@btinternet.com wrote:
>
> Britten, Benjamin, 1913-1976 [Quartets, strings, no. 2, op. 36, C
> major]
> String quartet : no. 2 in C, op. 36 / (Benjamin Britten). - [Hayes] :
> Gramophone Co., Ltd. : HMV, [1947]. - on 7 sides of 4 sound discs (ca.
> 30 min.) : analogue, 78 rpm, mono ; 12 in.
>
> Recorded under the supervision of the composer
> PERFORMERS: Zorian String Quartet
> DATE OF RECORDING: 46.11.05, 46.11.06, 46.11.07 at EMI Studio No. 3,
> Abbey Road, London; engineer: Robert Beckett
> Plate/Catalogue number: HMV C.7651, C.7653, C.7654 Plate/Catalogue
> number: 2EA 11283-2, 2EA 11285-2, 2EA 11286-1, 2EA 11287-1, 2EA
> 11288-2
> With: Fantasia on one note (Purcell)
>
> Thanks for posting this download!
> Best wishes
> Ewan McCormick

Ewan, thanks for posting this. If I read it correctly, then, the
Quartet was recorded in the three days following the Purcell Fantasia
recorded on Nov. 4. That's very unusual, to have the "main course"
recorded after the filler!

Best wishes,
Bryan Bishop

[nickdin...@gmail.com]

Bryan, I just stumbled upon this post. Would you be able to repost the Britten recording? (I'm working on the piece.)

Thanks,
Nick

[danielf...@gmail.com]

It's over here:

http://shellackophile.blogspot.com/2010/11/britten-for-st-cecilias-day.html

(And if you haven't visited the blog recently, there are plenty of other marvelous items as well.)
/Daniel