I agree! It's just finding the spare cash! Mind you,if you really love a composer!! ;D
In a perfect world there would be multiple versions of Bantock's pagan symphony or,let me see,if you like his music,Brian's third. The Gothic is a bit too OTT for me,but I find that one fascinating! The Hyperion third is boxy and dull. The Pope recording,in our archive,brings this wildly eccentric score to life. Yet,the Hyperion recording is the one most people will hear! As to the Marco Polo No 2? Words fail me! The Mackerras recording in our archive shows how this uneven,but in my opinion absorbing score,should be done. However,the Marco Polo/Naxos reissue is the one most people will hear!!
And then there is Louis Glass? He got the Plovdiv! They sound like an old wind up gramophone cranking up and the sound is abysmal. I don't know why they even bothered? I quite like No's 3 & 5 and would like to hear a really good performance in state of the art sound. No 4 sounds like Glass bit off a bit more than he could chew,but it's sheer ambition intrigues me and until I can hear a decent performance I'm going to give Louis Glass the benefit of the doubt!
Tournemire is on a different level of inspiration imho,and I would love to hear other recordings of No's 3,5,6 & 8;let alone a decent recording of No 4,which has some truly magical orchestration. Still,at least he didn't get the Plovdiv!!!
Meanwhile,in Denmark,Langgaard seems to have benefited from being seriously wierd! Would the Danish be doing so much for him if he had been a regular guy? I can't help wondering?! Or maybe,they feel a bit guilty because underneath all the wierdness and self destructive bitterness,Langgaard was a talented composer and an intelligent human being with feelings. All those years of isolation must been a living hell? I shudder to think what he went through.......even if he did bring some of it on himself! What would he have thought,in this day and age,when he could pick up and play more than one recording of his symphonies on his cd player,or Antikrist on his dvd player? And Carl Nielsen still 'up there' as Denmark's greatest composer!! :( ;D
Meanwhile Bantock's music (albeit,not all of it) is available in state of the art recordings by one of our greatest conductors on,arguably,Britains leading classical small label!
But wait a minute.........judging by allot of posts I have seen on various forums over the years,allot of people prefer the earlier interpretations of Bryden Thomson,not to mention most,if not all,the earlier Lyrita recordings.....and let's not forget the classic Barbirolli third,let alone the highly rated,by some,and sadly unavailable recording by Edward Downes!!
According to the Thomson camp,Handley's recordings of Bax are too hard driven. Thomson allows his music to breathe,allowing us to savour the atmosphere and colour of Bax's rich,brazenly romantic orchestration in a way that Handley doesn't! I'm with the Thomson camp on this one myself;but thinking about this I can't help contemplating an all too obvious thought that has popped up in my own head? If I don't like Handley's Bax how do I know I really like his Bantock?!! Maybe Handley's Bantock is too hard driven?! Unfortunately,unlike Bax,I don't really have any real comparisons. On the other hand,unlike Tournemire or Glass,I feel reasonably sure that,even if I have some reservations about this or that,I am,without doubt,in the hands of a truly first class conductor,with a roster of highly praised and respected recordings. Even if I don't like the way he conducts some of my favourite Bax symphonies I don't feel he's done anything wrong;it's just his interpretation of these scores. In fact,I can fully understand what Handley is trying to do. The problem for me is that,to me,Bax is a wallow,he isn't Sibelius. I don't need someone to convince me that Bax is a major symphonist. I don't need someone to drive me relentlessly forward. To me Bax is a dreamer,a brazen romantic who loved legends and wild landscapes and even if he takes his time occasionally,there is an inexorable flow and logic there somewhere which grabs hold of me and carries me to the finish. I don't need a Vernon Handley to grab hold of my metaphorical hand and drag me there!!
Anyway,I'm getting out of my depth here. I'm a listener not a musician,after all! But look at the symphonies of Malcolm Arnold. Who would have thought,back in the 1980s that there would be more than one cycle to choose from! Have we gained anything from more than one interpretation of these not exactly core repertoire symphonies? Well,judging by some of the wildly differing approaches to just No's 4 & 5, I think so! Yes,Expi does have a point here! And yes.........I would like another Beethoven symphony cycle too..........if I can find the dough!!! ::) ;D
I too, am not wealthy and generally I have waited for Naxos and other budget labels to produce some affordable symphonic cycles. Patience has paid great dividends for so many composers including Sibelius,Shostakovich, Prokofiev,Malipiero, Moyzes, Alwyn, Arnold, Bax and so many others. (I was waiting for Miaskovsky but devoured the Svetlanov-Warner cycle as soon as it was available because it was worth the extra money and Mia is my favorite composer.
I also bought the Previn cycle for Vaughan Williams and found some of the symphonies a bit bland and uninspired in execution, but I am more demanding of nuance and timbre with VWms, also a favorite. So I bought others.
As far as quality, I critics say there are better versions available for Sibelius,Prokofiev,Shostakovitch,Bruckner,Bax,Arnold and others, but I would rather support the budget, as I welcome their continued efforts to make this fine music affordable to the now endangered US middle class.
The music is quite servicable and in the case of Alwyn, Bax and Arnold, I am not at all convinced there are any better renderings of the symphonies, and there are no parallels to many of the Marco Polo, eg..Lyatoshinsky, Moyzes and Malipiero (unjustly savaged by malevolent critics). And of course there are the free downloadables for symphony share, unsung composers, concert archives and of course A&M. And I found the most compelling version of Shostakovitch no 10 on utube (of all places) which I recorded live.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZzFruQCofM&list=RDXKXQzs6Y5BYso you never know for sure without trying.
