At the moment, I can't imagine these Dances being performed or sounding any better than they are here. But then it is Marriner and the St Martin's players. Perfect for a sestercennial celebration........
Hello Max, this was a lovely recording. The ASMF always seemed (to me, at least) to have a very clear recorded sound regardless of the label (usually Decca, Philips or HMV). In contrast, their great rivals, I Musici, seemed to have a very 'muddy' sound - I put that down to the band rather than the recording techniques because they were mostly on the Philips label. That said, there are some marvelous I Musici recordings.....
I don't think I ever really came across many I Musici recordings, Tony. Not a conscious 'exclusion' on my part, just the way things panned out. I'm therefore unable to compare/contrast. But there did seem to me to be something really rather special about Marriner and St Martin-in-the-Fields, especially the Argo recordings.
Ah, those Decca engineers! I found a few I Musici recordings but, if a choice was available (and there was no clear preference in the Penguin Stereo Guide!), I would invariably go for the ASMF version. The quality of playing, presentation and recording was of an astonishing consistency over a long period - the benchmark was set for chamber ensembles methinks!
If my memory is correct, my first Academy purchase would have been the RVW one with Iona Brown. Not long after that would have been Bartok and Tippett. This was in the mid-70s when I began to be able to afford the occasional full-price LP. Before then, I was very much a Vox/Turnabout man!!!!! Edit : And many of those releases, especially the off-the-beaten-track ones, still sound good to me!
My first two were both Decca Serenata releases (therefore, re-issues) of some Vivaldi concertos and another of concertos by Telemann. I particularly loved the Vivaldi because it had the 1965 recording the ASMF made of the Concerto Op 3 No 10 in B minor (my favourite of Vivaldi's concertos) and they played the Largo quite slowly - to me (and I'm not religious in any way shape or form), this is what Heaven must sound like. In their subsequent recording of the entire Op 3 concertos (from around the mid 1970s on Argo), the Largo was played fast and, for me, the impact of that short movement is lost when played fast (just a personal opinion, of course). It's interesting to see how the ASMF (or Marriner) changed his perspective on that movement in a period of about twelve years. Happily, I have just found (for the first time!) the 1965 version here on UA-cam... the newer, 1970s, version has been uploaded many times.
At the moment, I can't imagine these Dances being performed or sounding any better than they are here. But then it is Marriner and the St Martin's players. Perfect for a sestercennial celebration........
Hello Max, this was a lovely recording. The ASMF always seemed (to me, at least) to have a very clear recorded sound regardless of the label (usually Decca, Philips or HMV). In contrast, their great rivals, I Musici, seemed to have a very 'muddy' sound - I put that down to the band rather than the recording techniques because they were mostly on the Philips label. That said, there are some marvelous I Musici recordings.....
I don't think I ever really came across many I Musici recordings, Tony. Not a conscious 'exclusion' on my part, just the way things panned out. I'm therefore unable to compare/contrast. But there did seem to me to be something really rather special about Marriner and St Martin-in-the-Fields, especially the Argo recordings.
Ah, those Decca engineers! I found a few I Musici recordings but, if a choice was available (and there was no clear preference in the Penguin Stereo Guide!), I would invariably go for the ASMF version. The quality of playing, presentation and recording was of an astonishing consistency over a long period - the benchmark was set for chamber ensembles methinks!
If my memory is correct, my first Academy purchase would have been the RVW one with Iona Brown. Not long after that would have been Bartok and Tippett. This was in the mid-70s when I began to be able to afford the occasional full-price LP. Before then, I was very much a Vox/Turnabout man!!!!! Edit : And many of those releases, especially the off-the-beaten-track ones, still sound good to me!
My first two were both Decca Serenata releases (therefore, re-issues) of some Vivaldi concertos and another of concertos by Telemann. I particularly loved the Vivaldi because it had the 1965 recording the ASMF made of the Concerto Op 3 No 10 in B minor (my favourite of Vivaldi's concertos) and they played the Largo quite slowly - to me (and I'm not religious in any way shape or form), this is what Heaven must sound like. In their subsequent recording of the entire Op 3 concertos (from around the mid 1970s on Argo), the Largo was played fast and, for me, the impact of that short movement is lost when played fast (just a personal opinion, of course). It's interesting to see how the ASMF (or Marriner) changed his perspective on that movement in a period of about twelve years. Happily, I have just found (for the first time!) the 1965 version here on UA-cam... the newer, 1970s, version has been uploaded many times.