Photo, Chris Christodoulou (BBC Prom 20 last year)
Last night BBC Radio 3 broadcast a BBC Symphony Orchestra & Martyn Brabbins concert “recorded last month” (why not be specific and say March 17?) that included Vaughan Williams’s Job: A Masque for Dancing, which was indeed the “marvellous performance” that Peter Reed wrote about, http://www.colinscolumn.com/bbc-symphony-orchestra-martyn-brabbins-conducts-beowulf-and-job/.
What I’d hoped for was that following the Barbican rendition, Brabbins and the Symphony Orchestra would be off to the Watford Colosseum to record Job for Hyperion (with Andrew Keener producing and one of his associate trusty engineers doing the sound honours) to continue the great work that has been the recently completed VW/Brabbins Symphony Cycle, http://www.colinscolumn.com/martyn-brabbins-and-the-bbc-symphony-orchestra-record-vaughan-williamss-sinfonia-antartica-ninth-symphony-for-hyperion/, http://www.colinscolumn.com/martyn-brabbins-the-bbc-symphony-orchestra-record-vaughan-williamss-sixth-eighth-symphonies-for-hyperion/, http://www.colinscolumn.com/martyn-brabbins-bbcso-record-vaughan-williamss-fifth-symphony-and-pilgrims-progress-for-hyperion/, but it was not the case.
Of course, Brabbins can still document this VW masterpiece at some stage and if he doesn’t he’ll join André Previn and Leonard Slatkin as champions of the Symphonies who have also missed out with Job – illustrious company of course -; whether Previn ever conducted it I know not but Slatkin has, with the New York Philharmonic. Other VW notables who have recorded the Symphonies and Job include Boult (four times, plus concert performances, such as, http://www.colinscolumn.com/rvw150-somm-releases-sir-adrian-boult-conducting-the-boston-symphony-orchestra-in-ralph-vaughan-williamss-job-a-masque-for-dancing-1946/ ), Andrew Davis (twice), Elder, Handley, Hickox, Manze (imminent), and, albeit with none of the Symphonies in his discography, David Lloyd-Jones whose Naxos Job is excellent. (Apologies for any omissions.)
So, over to Hyperion to hopefully one day schedule sessions for Brabbins to record Job (perhaps also the Five Tudor Portraits); meanwhile we have thirty days to relish this Barbican concert performance…
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001kyb8
Harrison Birtwistle died a year ago on this date, aged 87. Martyn Brabbins conducts The Last Supper.
Last year’s Prom 20:
BBC Proms 2023 launched tomorrow:
Hyperion has got a new boss although platitudes are offered about independence. Time will tell and fingers crossed for a fine producer of timeless classics and much more.
Simon Perry is very much in charge at Hyperion. Colin
A wonderful performance that compensated for the dreadful BEOWULF piece in the first half but at least the actress’s fans brought in a slightly larger audience than usual who stayed and cheered ‘Job’ to the rafters…