I really like the Chandos version.

You get Arensky:  I get Mahler ?

Ideal stuff for Autumn nights in.

Just like Susan Bullock's recital with Malcom Martineau.

I'd also like to put in a word for the Arensky symphonies - they are both lovely.  The slow movement of the first piano trio is also especially haunting - I first heard it on In Tune in late May 1997 and it really struck a chord.  The piano music is very good as well - there's a disc on Hyperion which is full of great little pieces.

Biber, The Rosary Sonatas, Andrew Manze and Richard Egarr

Shostakovich Piano Concerto No 1 and the Piano Quintet performed at the Lugano Festival 2006.   Martha Argerich, Sergei Nakariakov and Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana, conducted by Alexander Vedernikov, play with a real fizz on the former and a mesmerising intensity on the latter, along with Renaud Capucon, Alissa Margulis (violins) Lida Chen (viola) and Mischa Maisky (cello).   EMI Classics.

I still have affection for the Fitzwilliam String Quartet and Vladimir Ashkenazy in the Piano Quintet, recorded by Decca in 1986, accompanied by the Seven Romances on Poems of Alexander Blok (recorded 1983) exquisitely sung by Elisabeth Soderstrom.

Fond memories, too, of the complete Shostakovich String Quartets played by the Fitzwilliam String Quartet at the Wigmore Hall, circa 1978.   In a pre-performance talk, we were told about the Fitzwilliam's nervous tension when DS agreed to break his journey at York and they performed his String Quartet No 15 for him at the adjacent Station Hotel.   The quartet were 'in residence' at York University at the time.

Thank you, roslynmuse, albeit for such sad news, as I've only recently returned from the Scottish Highlands and didn't know about Chris Rowland's death.

Indeed, I read your response as I was listening to the Fitzwilliam's recording of DS's Str Qt 3 and was touched to see a recent photograph of him in your 'lead' and the photo of the young man in the CD booklet.    RIP Christopher Rowland.   Your musicianship gave me many hours of deep pleasure.

Treemonisha, by Scott Joplin, after hearing bits of it on Radio 3 recently.



The best bits are the ragtime music, I think. The more sentimental parts and ballads can drag. But it's well performed and the sound quality (from 1976) is very good.

Elgar's Interpreters on Record, Volume 5.      A quite magical 3 CD set consisting of Broadcasts from the Leech Collection at the British Library (1935-1950).

The ears quickly monitor the variable sound quality and you are left with:

CD 1   A 71 min broadcast of extracts from The Dream of Gerontius; a broadcast from the Free Trade Hall, Manchester, in Nov 1935.    Malcolm Sargent conducting The Halle Orchestra; soloists Heddle Nash, Astra Desmond, Keith Falkner with the Halle Chorus.     

CD 2  Caractacus, excerpts, with Isobel Baillie, solosits and CBSO, conducted by Percy Hull, Nov 1938
Scenes from the Saga of King Olaf, Feb 1950 with Heddle Nash and BBC Opera Orchestra, conducted by Stanford Robinson.
With Proud Thanksgiving, The BBC Northern Orchestra, conducted by Crawford McNair in May 1936.
Carillon, same orchestra and conductor in May 1936.
The Shepherds Song, Walter Widdop, in Sept 1935.

CD 3    Sea Pictures. a National Broadcast in June 1937, gloriously sung by Mary Jarred and The BBC Orchestra, conducted by Clarence Reybould.
Presumably the National Broadcast was prompted by the Coronation of King George VI at that time.
A 30 min extract from The Dream of Gerontius with Heddle Nash, Muriel Brunskill, Horace Stevens and BBCSO, conducted by Adrian Boult in Dec 1936.
The Spirit of England, 22 min extract, with Elsie Suddaby, BBC Orchestra, conducted by Adrian Boult in in November 1938.   Performance included John Ireland's These Things Shall be, sung by by Redvers Llewellyn.

A real treasure trove to set alongside the EMI Elgar Edition.