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Music Lane It's all about the music, dude! Sit down, relax and listen to some tunes. |
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Music Lane It's all about the music, dude! Sit down, relax and listen to some tunes. |
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In Reply to: Who woulda thunk it? New A. Davis Messiah recording in his own Beechamesque re-orchestration! posted by Chris from Lafayette on October 11, 2016 at 10:18:59:
I finally got the download finished. I'll post separately about all my tribulations using the Chandos Download Manager.
So the multi-channel FLAC files took 9.13 GB of disk space - but per my usual procedure, I converted these files to AIFF, which took another 19.93 GB of disk space. Storage is cheap these days, but that's still a lot of storage!
In answer to an earlier post asking whether the orchestration heard in this new recording is the same as the one heard in Davis' earlier recording on CBS/Sony, I can now tell you that they are not the same at all. As Davis says in his booklet notesFor my performances and recording with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra (TSO) and Toronto Mendelssohn Choir in 1986 I made selective use of the version by the English music scholar Ebenezer Prout (1835 - 1909); and Sir Thomas Beecham's famous recording, which. . . uses the imaginative but overblown (and occasionally even verging on vulgar) orchestration made especially for the project by Sir Eugene Goossens. . .Oh dear! We wouldn't want anything to verge on the vulgar, would we? Hence, in 2001, Davis made his own new orchestration (which he says dominated his life for five months). I guess that can happen when you're guarding against vulgarity - LOL!
I've listened to only 4 tracks so far, but it's certainly been ear opening, and I thought I'd post a little tease of what I've heard so far, mainly in the Hallelujah chorus. Yes, Davis, like Goossens, uses cymbals, but rather than going all out with them (as on the Beecham recording), he restricts their use to strategic points - not nearly as much fun! OTOH, Davis brings in a part for glockenspiel - thumbs way up for this idea! In the booklet notes for the recording, Davis mentions that he includes a part for jingle bells at one point - I'm afraid that passed me by and I'll be listening again closely tomorrow in order to spot their use. Near the end, he employs strong organ pedal tones in the balance as well as what sounds like a immense bass drum roll - jdaniel, run for the hills! ;-)
Following this, "I know that my Redeemer liveth" uses a solo clarinet rather than strings for the opening statement of the theme - I have to say that this choice sounds kind of wishy-washy and weak to me. But as you can no doubt surmise, detailing all the different instrumental choices that Davis made in his new orchestration will no doubt prove entertaining and amusing. My schedule is still really terrible, and I may not get in a full listen until Sunday - when I can report further! ;-)
The last thing I'll say in this post is that, in one of the pieces, Davis uses another instrument (besides glockenspiel) which is not heard on the Beecham/Goossens album: the marimba! So even though Andy-boy sought to avoid vulgarity, there still might be some fun in the other pieces too! ;-)
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- All's well that ends well - Chris from Lafayette 21:35:57 10/13/16 (0)
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