Report on Last Berkshire Order

I've had pretty good luck, exploring the outer reaches of the musical repertory, with Berkshire. Most of my guesses have been good, but not all. For example, Ravel's arrangements of Corsican Folksongs, sung by untalented peasants, was quickly tossed.

My last shipment was uniformly interesting.

Mendelssohn's Athalie - I've tried his Oedipus and Antigone incidental music and they turned out to be duds. The Athalie score has a fine overture and choral numbers and, of course, the War March of the Priests. The orchestration has harp and prominent brass, unusual for Mendelssohn.

Mendelssohn and friends - An interesting collection conducted by Dirk Joeres with Schumann, Overture, Scherzo and Finale, Bennett, The Naiads, Gade, Ossian Overture as well as the Hebrides. Sound is only so so. In a previous shipment, I received another enjoyable disk by Joeres, the Vorisek Symphony and Impromptus.

Bruch's Odysseus - Plenty of Mendelssohn in this Oratorio, conducted by Botstein. In Bruch's day it was very popular. There is another good piece of Odyssey music, Rimsky-Korsakov's Iz Gomera for orchestra and woman's chorus. It is available from Tower on a disc of 4 Rimsky, 'Cantates profanes'. I think Faure's Penelope is also derived from the Odyssey. However, I have never found a recording.

Schubert Opera Arias - Magnificent baritone voice of Oliver Widmer. Beautiful, detailed, illustrated Hyperion booklet. If you like Schubert lieder orchestrated, you will like also like these.

Marta Schele Sings - Debussy, Trois Chansons de Bilitis, Ravel, Cinq Melodies populaires Grecques, Schubert Auf dem Strome (with horn obbligato) plus works by Milhaud, Britten and Castelnuovo-Tedesco. Beautiful.

Berwald Quartets 2 and 3 - Music of quality equal to his symphonies.

Andre Previn and Friends - Saint Saens Septet and works by Poulenc and Milhaud.

Hogwood conducts symphonies of Gade (#4) and Frohlich - Frohlich supposedly wrote the first Danish symphony. Good music and sound.

Butt conducts Saint Saens - Symphony #2, Suite Algerienne, Phaeton. Lively performances and excellent sound.

I was going to wait until the end of the month, but I realized with Berkshire that if I ordered now, that might be when I get it. So besides the Stravinsky violin concerto and a Nielsen symphony these are all new to me:

Nielsen 6 symphonies Thomson

Simpson string quartets 3, 13, quintet for strings and clarinet Delme quartet

Bax symphony 2 Thomson

Bax symphony 6 Thomson

Szymanowski violin concerti and Stravinsky violin concerto Juilett/Dutoit

What do you think? I hope I enjoy this music. Last time I ordered from Berkshire, I made the dreadful mistake of ordering Norrington's Beethoven cycle thinking it would be good. I'm just hoping that this order doesn't turn out like that order!

David Whitbeck

I like Thomson in the Bax (get Sym 4, too, if they have it), but not for Nielsen. If you don't have a Nielsen set, I suggest Blomstedt on Decca Doubles. Szy. & Simpson don't interest me. For Stravinsky, if you don't have already, Chung (cw Prokofiev's 1 & 2) on Decca Jubilee. What a bargain this is.

Szymanowski violin concerti and Stravinsky violin concerto

If Berkshire has the Schmidt Nielsen symphonies on Regis that's another remarkable bargain.

Marc Perman

Yes, just 8.94 pounds sterling at MDT.

I see it on there. I might get it in the future if I'm dissatisfied with the Thomson set. Thanks for the rec.

David Whitbeck

I'm very pleased with the Schønwandt on Danacord; and you can even get his recordings of the concerti on Chandos as a nice supplement.

I got that set from Berkshire a little while ago myself, and listened to it in the car while driving down to Florida and back this past week.

Nielsen's music is wonderful, although the symphonies are distinct enough from each other that you'll probably have definite preferences for some over the others. (I like them all, myself, except that I've never warmed up as much to the Second as to the others.)

These performances sounded pretty good to me, although my car is not the best environment for listening, so I can't be sure of the sound quality

I forgot to add Myaskovsky's 6th Svetlanov!

That's good to know. I'm looking forward to getting my BRO order now.

David Whitbeck