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Lyrita futures

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Dundonnell
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« Reply #15 on: June 30, 2017, 10:55:39 pm »

None of us knows what is contained in the Richard Itter Broadcast Archive. The contents are a closely guarded secret. Those who do know what Itter recorded (and, by definition, what he did not record) during the period between the mid 1950s and the mid 1990s are not going to tell us.

What we do know, or can find out, is what was broadcast by the BBC during these decades. I recorded a vast amount between the early 1970s and the early 1980s. Some of the huge number of orchestral works recorded by me are in our own Archive on this site. Unfortunately I did not possess the sort of equipment that Richard Itter used and for that reason alone my recordings are of very considerably inferior quality, some better than others but none even approaching Itter's standard. Other people made such recordings over the years and have been generous enough to share these with us. Some duplicate and are of better quality to mine and have therefore, quite rightly, replaced mine in the Archive. James Stuart has shared his stupendous collection of BBC recordings on You Tube and most are in excellent quality.

Now. Lyrita has been remastering Itter recordings and issuing these on cd. This wonderful project has only been made possible with the agreement of the BBC and the Musicians' Union. In addition Lyrita have issued and will be issuing further BBC broadcasts made long after Itter stopped and indeed after his death. The recent broadcast of the Grace Williams "Missa Cambrensis" will shortly be released by Lyrita in agreement with the BBC.

Clearly Lyrita or the Trust involved with the Itter Archive could have adopted a policy of releasing only those broadcast recordings of music which was not otherwise available on cd. Many (indeed most) of the releases to date fall into such a category. Lyrita had issued recordings of five of the Daniel Jones symphonies many years ago. The company is now embarked on adding the remaining symphonies as broadcast by the BBC in Wales in the early 1990s.

However Lyrita has also decided to issue broadcast recordings of works which are available in modern stereo versions from other labels. Examples of this have included the Arthur Butterworth Symphonies Nos. 1 (Classico and Dutton) and 4 (Dutton) and the Humphrey Searle Symphonies Nos. 3 and 5 (both on CPO). They are about to issue a disc containing Edmund Rubbra's Violin Concerto (Naxos) and Sinfonia Concertante for piano and orchestra (Chandos) and the Lloyd Symphonies Nos. 6 and 7.

Turning to George Lloyd. Lyrita issued Lloyd's Symphonies Nos. 4, 5 and 8 in the early 1980s in studio recordings made by the composer's champion Sir Edward Downes with the Philharmonia Orchestra. These were originally issued on LP between 1982 and 1984 and reissued on cd in 2007. In the interim the composer himself embarked on a complete series of his symphonies. No.4 was recorded with the Albany Symphony Orchestra in December 1987, No.5 with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra in March 1989, No.6 with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra in May 1988, No.7 with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra in May 1988 and No.8 with the Philharmonia Orchestra in August 1996. All of these recordings are on cd on the Albany label.

The Lyrita/Downes recordings and the Albany/composer recordings received praise for the performances and the recording quality. All are in stereo soumd. I have the Downes versions of Nos. 4 and 5 on LP and all of the composer's versions on cd.

What we are now being offered are, presumably, off-air recordings conducted by Downes of Nos. 6 and 7 (No.6 will be from the broadcast made in 1981).

I can understand what Lyrita is doing. If you are a huge fan of the music of George Lloyd (as many are) you will probably welcome the opportunity to hear what Downes made of these symphonies in what were their first ever broadcasts. Whether they deserve to be reissued is a matter of both commercial and artistic decision. From a commercial point of view....I cannot see myself investing in them for the simple reason that I am happy with the composer's own versions. I would rather save my money to spend on music which was not already on my shelves. I did buy the recent Searle disc but that was because it contained also two of Searle's other orchestral pieces ("Labyrinth" and the "Zodiac Variations").

It is no secret that I would prefer to see Lyrita issuing music which was not otherwise available. Others will disagree and I fully respect that.
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