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
Jeff from WI
JAC
- 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
> - 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).
--
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JAC
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.
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
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
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