{enclose 2009.mystery.01.mp3}
Here is 2009’s first mystery track: William Walton‘s Crown Imperial (revised version) captured in live performance. Your mission: identify the orchestra and conductor. Answer will be posted late Friday afternoon. Send your best guess to me here.
{enclose 2009.mystery.01.answer.mp3}
William Walton’s Crown Imperial as performed on November 19, 1969 by the Hallé Orchestra and Trumpteres & Band of the Royal Military School of Music, Kneller Hall conducted by Sir John Barbirolli (the organist is not identified), at Royal Albert Hall. Oddly, the only sources for this recording are mono airchecks; the present one is a correctly pitched version of the same recording issued in CD format on BBC Legends 4100-2.
One preson correctly identified the maestro; none (!) identified the orchestra; two people nailed the venue. Three people guessed Sir Malcolm Sargent and the BBC Symphony; some of the more esoteric conductor guesses included Leonard Bernstein, Constantin Silvestri, André Kostelanetz and Arthur Fiedler.
… as activist blogger, filmmaker and legendary party-crasher Scoobie Davis is fond of saying. I’ve been taking on some additional responsibilities for one client, initiating a digital archiving job for another, remastering some fascinating romantic-era piano concertos from analog tape originals for yet another, assembling additional talent for APJ, and generally burning the candle at both ends. Later this week, look for a new “guess the artist” audio sample.
One of the best music critics in America weighs in on the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra’s outstanding SACD series. DPS cites the Debussy/Dutilleux disc conducted by music director Mariss Jansons an all-Berg program conducted by Daniele Gatti, and I’m also mighty impressed…
{enclose AbbeySimonExtended.flv}
{enclose AbbeySimonExtended_mpeg2video.mpg}
Alan Rich reports on the death of one the world’s most prominent patrons of postwar music.
Finally, someone dares say it. I’ve had similar feelings about “It’s a Wonderful Life”, arguably Frank Capra’s darkest film – and I’m pleased that Wendell Jameson links to a fellow George Bailey skeptic, Gary Kamiya, whose Salon article about Pottersville pretty much says it all. For the record, my favorite Christmas films remain “Bad[der] Santa” and “Gremlins.”
CanadianArchitect.com reports details of the upcoming Le Corbusier exhibit at the Barbican Art Gallery – and a Xenakis-focused program to be performed by the BBC Symphony Orchestra.
… friends don’t let friends use Internet Explorer.