2 Constant Lambert: "Horoscope" - Ballet Suite
2 files zip FLAC Mega Download
London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Robert Irving
Decca LXT 2791 1953 LP/matrices: ARL1582 -1A / ARL1583 -1A
Recorded: 10/27 March 1953 + 26-27 February 1953 - Kingsway Hall. Dec.2014: '1.3' de-click + 1.4dB treble EQ
Constant Lambert: "Horoscope" - Valse for the Gemini / Arthur Bliss: "Adam Zero" - Dance of Summer
Gavin Gordon: "The Rake's Progress" - Sarabande & Orgy 3 files zip FLAC Mega Download
Royal Opera House Orchestra, Covent Garden conducted by Robert Irving (Very fine playing/sound)
HMV HQM 1078 (from CLP 1070). 1967 matrix: 2XEA 2916 -1. (Sleeve-note: see Constant Lambert conducts... link below)
WALTON CONDUCTS 1936-1951 Constant Lambert conducts... Walton conducts marches / Troilus & Cressida >>> EMG reviews / sleeve-note >>>
Reading the EMG reviews...a reviewer who used the word "disinterested" when he meant "uninterested" back in 1953 when I thought English grammar was at a peak of perfection :-)
ReplyDeleteAnd what is a "glassy tone" on the 78 which needs to be filtered? Any idea?
It's great to have Horoscope - it's long been a favourite of mine, so thank you for all your efforts in restoring it.
The EMG 'panel' was endowed with English Composers.....
DeleteThe effort was Huge - ridiculously so (had mentioned this pressing on the HISTORICAL blog, some time ago)- but, having started...
Unfortunately I can't bring myself to use de-click/de-crackle as even the lowest settings always damage the sound - and this would require very substantial 'intervention'.
Horoscope is a score I love (as did my Mother - who was a great fan of Constant Lambert as a conductor).
Difficult to second-guess the EMG Walton (very fine as the 1953 LP) - but they did use high-quality equipment - and the 78 would have been a tape-dubbing; none too successful, judging by various reviews.
Thanks for the work on this: somehow this recording has escaped my notice until now. Irving was a much under-rated (and under-recorded) conductor. In fact I will go so far as to say that his recording of Horoscope has more rhythmic point and beauty than Lambert's own (which was a hotch-potch anyway, with two orchestras).
ReplyDeleteAndrew Smith
Hello Andrew,
DeleteNot an LP I would choose to transfer - due to the awful surface defects - but the only other Decca 'Coronation' cover I have is of the truly dire Masses by RVW/Rubbra.
This appears only to have had a NoxOff dubbing - and would have preferred if the LP was a later mastering (assuming Decca ever re-cut this..) - though the Sargent/LSO ACL 1953 'Marches' I intended coupling this with (have some tracks edited) was bad for orchestral playing + 'brash' sound/conducting...this has nice string-tone.
There's still Irving's Decca Patineurs/Le Cid (original LXT /ACL)....plus EMI's Ballet stuff from around 1959
I think I prefer the 'jazzy' playing of Facade here; but the 1945/1949 Lambert Horoscope was a joke on the 'Treasury' LP as tape/78 tracks were alternating 'according to the correct sequence'; and anyway (I think) took the taped tracks from the HQM.
But the Rawsthorne/Bliss zip folder contains some wonderful performances...and have some more Lambert 78's - Dido & Aeneas (complete!) + Capriol + 'something Delius'..