Well,I got my wish! But like in some of those old fairy stories,it didn't quite turn out the way I wanted it to!! ::) :( ;D Unless some other small label coughs up the Handley broacast,the best hope is for a new recording! Or perhaps a small,provincial operatic company will decide to put it on & a recording will follow (as per,Stanford's Travelling Comanion). But brilliant orchestral writing needs a professional orchestra! And wobbly soloists don't help! When Boughton's Immortal Hour and VW's The Poisoned Kiss were released,they benefited from top notch performances. The sort of recording where you have to make allowances for wobbly soloists can do more damage than good!
Cherish the Handley broadcast, I doubt we'll get any better. Many a promising pioneering recording has been buggered by ill-cast soloists: Dutton's
Everyman with Pauls Putnins ( :P) in the title-role springs to mind, as does Foulds'
A World Requiem with the
ghastly Jeanne-Michele Charbonnet - I can only hope that Beelzebub's imps prick her with their toasting forks into eternity.
:o
Admittedly Chandos didn't hire the latter and just recorded the live performance. But "Why, oh why, oh why?" Fully in agreement that
The Immortal Hour and
The Poisoned Kiss are exemplary...
:)
