Things come in threes – Elgar’s Concert Overture, In the South (Alassio) – Philadelphia Orchestra/Riccardo Muti; 1986. Orchestra dell’Accademia di Santa Cecilia/Antonio Pappano; March 18, 2013, Rome. Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra/Charles Olivieri-Munroe; February 1, 2019, Bratislava.
As someone who’s particularly interested in British music played by orchestras from foreign lands, it’s delightful to see these three performances here in the Column. Coincidentally, there are headlines just now which state that more people are switching to YouTube, from which these recordings come, having found the BBC “very samey and boring.”
One thing is for sure, since we are looking at “In the South,” and that is you won’t ever hear Elgar’s own 1930 recording of the work on Radio 3. Nor will you ever hear Rachmaninoff’s own 1941 recording of his 4th Piano Concerto either, played at last Friday’s Proms.
It would seem that “historic” recordings like those, and pretty much everything in mono, has been designated as not to be played on the radio, evidently due to the supposition that people don’t buy stereo radios to listen to old mono stuff. However, thanks to YouTube, you can indeed hear Elgar conducting “In the South” from his 1930 set of 78s, as well as Rachmaninoff playing his own 4th Piano Concerto in 1941.
Colin has uploaded an enormous amount of interesting works, TV transmissions and radio broadcasts from YouTube here in the Column, so in a way he’s filling a gap left empty by the BBC. Long may it continue!
Having visited Bratislava last year and visited the Slovak Phil Office I will start with this peformance with heightened expectation for a super outing of Elgar’s immortal work. I have yet to visit Alassio!
Amazing to think it was freezing cold when Elgar visited Alassio .
If, as Edward Johnson has pointed out (and I for one am certain he is correct) that the BBC no longer broadcasts monaural recordings, that decision removes 50% of Britten’s most significant recordings, alongside many of those by Walton, Vaughan Williams, Shostakovich and Maria Callas. Will the BBC no longer permit us to hear Caruso, Flagstad, Melchior and Ferrier sing, or Richard Strauss and Toscanini conduct? They’ll be banning black-and-white films next – if they haven’t done so already.