Sign in

Mr. Symphonist

@deeplyclassical.bsky.social
4K followers 662 following 6.5K posts

Passionate symphony lover. Other music is good too.

PostsRepliesMedia
Mr. Symphonist @deeplyclassical.bsky.social · 2h
More Mahler, but minimized: will Symphony No. 1 arranged for chamber orchestra add anything even as it reduces the spectacle and scale we expect? And speaking of arrangements, if you've ever dreamt of hearing Dvořák's New World symphony played entirely by saxophones, your dream has now come true.
https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/9991369--dvo-ak-symphony-no-9-op-95-a-new-world
230
Mr. Symphonist @deeplyclassical.bsky.social · 3h
Also on my playlist of this week's (or should that be last week's) symphony and orchestral #NewReleases: what seems like the millionth Mahler 2 of the year, and the umpteenth conducted by Simon Rattle. His first was Gramophone's Record of the Year way back in 1988. Can he top it in 2026?
https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/9958183--mahler-symphony-no-2-auferstehungssinfonie
220
Mr. Symphonist @deeplyclassical.bsky.social · 3h
I've just got back from holiday, so #NewReleaseFriday is later than ever. I didn't make it as far as the Hebrides, but a wonderful week in the Lake District has put me in the mood for more vivid British landscapes, courtesy of Granville Bantock (1868-1946). www.tunemymusic.com/share/S6pW72...

https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/9958188--granville-bantock-orchestral-works
2121
Mr. Symphonist @deeplyclassical.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
I'm sure following a negroni with a cosmo will improve my health no end. Cheers! 🍸
010
Mr. Symphonist @deeplyclassical.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
These should keep me happy for a while.
A slightly dog-eared copy of "Benjamin Britten: A Life in the Twentieth Century" by Paul Kildea, next to a negroni, on a round table.
2220
Mr. Symphonist @deeplyclassical.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
A slice of French life ... and death #NowDrinking a negroni #NowWatching Le Boucher (1970)
0130
Mr. Symphonist @deeplyclassical.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
I really enjoy listening to a historic instrument like this under the fingers and feet of such a great player. But I don't love the sound of a modern Steinway any less as a result.
010
Mr. Symphonist @deeplyclassical.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Yes, it's the same type of instrument Schiff used for his recording of the piano concertos a few years back.
https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/8906015--johannes-brahms-piano-concertos
130
Mr. Symphonist @deeplyclassical.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Happy #NewReleaseFriday! This week my symphony and orchestral #NewReleases playlist starts with fiery Falla from one of my lovely local orchestras. Plus symphonies by Beethoven's pupil Carl Czerny and more - get them on your favourite streaming service here 🔽 www.tunemymusic.com/share/1FXGR0...
https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/9883513--manuel-de-falla-el-sombrero-de-tres-picos-el-amor-brujo-homenajes-la-vida-breve-fantasia-baetica
0163
Mr. Symphonist @deeplyclassical.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
I got to do more listening today than any other day this year and boy, did #NewReleases2026 #190, #191 & #192 make it a day to remember! Three cracking records that'll be vying for a slot on #SymphonistsChoice2026 come Christmas. Pure joy ❤️❤️❤️
https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/9879214--sturm-und-drang-vol-4https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/9885322--frank-loesser-guys-and-dollshttps://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/9885320--george-enescu-string-octet-piano-quintet
3110
Mr. Symphonist @deeplyclassical.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Sorry, that should have been Whorf, not Worf. He also did the cover design for some memorable non-classical albums too.
100
Mr. Symphonist @deeplyclassical.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
So did I ⭐⭐⭐½. If Mars had got a bit more of a move on it would have been 4 stars. Tintagel is glorious.
010
Mr. Symphonist @deeplyclassical.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
The narration-heavy text sounds rather stiff and formal today (though you get Janet Baker, no less, as Athene on the recording), and this once-popular radio format fell out of fashion, but this shorter concert version compiled by Chris de Souza is a cracking listen, full of vivid and dramatic music.
Odysseus returning to Penelope. Terracotta plaque, Greek, Melian. About 450 BCE. New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art.
120
Mr. Symphonist @deeplyclassical.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Also this week: the start of another enticing series, which promises to give us the complete orchestral works of Emilie Mayer. She wrote 8 symphonies, of which the last is presumed lost. I wonder whether they'll be able to find it?
https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/9879500--emilie-mayer-piano-concerto-symphony-no-1-overtures-symphonic-works-vol-1#awards_and_reviews
0171
Mr. Symphonist @deeplyclassical.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Brahms, eh? I mean ... BRAHMS! ❤️ #NowListening #NewReleases2026 #188
https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/9959650--brahms-symphonies-nos-1-2
290
Mr. Symphonist @deeplyclassical.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Happy #NewReleaseFriday! Volumes 1-3 were stormers, so I'm thrilled to see this @themozartists.bsky.social series back on the road. Minor-key symphonic bangers by Haydn and "The Swedish Mozart" Joseph Martin Kraus sandwich operatic fire and fury. Try it here: ▶️ www.tunemymusic.com/share/JZ2zWb...
https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/9879214--sturm-und-drang-vol-4
1181
Mr. Symphonist @deeplyclassical.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
W. H. Auden put Britten onto Smart's Jubilate Agno. Approached for "some music" to celebrate the 50th anniversary of St Matthew’s in Northampton, his imagination ran riot to match the joyous idiosyncracy of the poetry in which animals, instruments and even letters of the alphabet all praise God.
Christopher Smart, c. 1745, by an unidentified painter. His poem Jubilate Agno was first published in 1939, under its English title, "Rejoice in the Lamb".The interior of St. Matthew's Church, Northampton, where Britten's Rejoice in the Lamb was first performed. The Reverend Walter Hussey first approached William Walton for music to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the church's consecration, but Walton turned him down.
261
Mr. Symphonist @deeplyclassical.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
#TheCompleteBritten #172 Now sleeps the crimson petal (ed. Colin Matthews) (1943) Tennyson setting discarded from the Serenade for Tenor, Horn & Strings. It's on Youtube, and also on this fine Neil Mackie CD, but it's not on other streaming services. Well worth hearing. youtu.be/sZZEODbSBRw?...
CD of Neil Mackie sings Britten. Not available on Youtube or streaming services, but the CD is available second hand.
160
Mr. Symphonist @deeplyclassical.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
Probably so I'll have to watch it on their streaming service, which tbf is fine with me.
110
Mr. Symphonist @deeplyclassical.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
ITV don't want us to remember
210
Mr. Symphonist @deeplyclassical.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
Drawing the curtains and preparing to scare myself silly. #NowWatching Passenger (2026) #NowDrinking a negroni
090
Mr. Symphonist @deeplyclassical.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
All three are essential listening. For decades their legacy cramped the style of otherwise fine recordings, but recently a new generation of post-Britten/Pears performers have made the music their own. My top modern recommendation is the superb Allan Clayton & Richard Watkins, released in 2016.
Record cover. Britten: Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings, performed by Richard Watkins (horn), Allan Clayton (tenor), Aldeburgh Strings, Markus Däunert. Linn Records CKD478.

https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/8110764--britten-serenade-for-tenor-horn-and-strings
120
Mr. Symphonist @deeplyclassical.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
In 1953 Pears and Brain recorded the work again. Brain lets the out-of-tune harmonics register more clearly than before, and the sound is astonishingly vivid. Brain tragically died in 1957, so Barry Tuckwell took over horn duties for Pears's 3rd recording, in stereo, with Britten back on the podium.
https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/7950172--britten-serenade-les-illuminations-nocturnehttps://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/8059312--britten-serenade-les-illuminations-nocturne
320
Mr. Symphonist @deeplyclassical.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
Its latest remastering is as close as we'll get to what the premiere 7 months before was like. Pears, sounding wonderfully youthful, relishes every word, Brain's virtuosity and musicianship are astonishing, and all three sound completely at home in the studio. A phenomenal piece of history in sound.
Front page of the score to Britten's Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings, signed by the composer and Peter Pears.
140
Mr. Symphonist @deeplyclassical.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
"... for in Benjamin Britten we have at last a composer who offers us visions as great as those. His new Serenade ... surpasses everything else of his in strength and feeling." A few months later in May 1944, Britten's first recording as a conductor was the Serenade with Pears & Brain.
The cover of the first recording of Britten's Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings, Op. 31, made in May 1944, in its most recent CD and download incarnation. Peter Pears (tenor) and Dennis Brain (horn) were also the soloists in the first performance on 15th October 1943.The same recording in a previous LP incarnation from 1986. The recording was originally issued on multiple 78rpm discs.
140
Mr. Symphonist @deeplyclassical.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
The most eloquent praise of all came from the Observer's William Glock: "I used to listen rather sadly to my predecessor ... while he told me of his good fortune as a young man in being able to hear Brahms's mature works as they came out. Now I feel differently ..."
Sir William Glock (1908-2000). Glock was music critic of The Observer from 1934-1945. As BBC Controller of Music from 1959 to 1972, and controller of The Proms from 1960 to 1973, Glock instrumental in introducing the music of the Continental avant-garde to Britain. Perhaps he's about to "enjoy" hearing a bit of Boulez here?
130
Mr. Symphonist @deeplyclassical.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
Yes, it's fascinating. What edition of the score is that last picture from? My Dover score which is a republication of the 1921 Goodwin & Tabb edition has it as a flat, so Karajan and co. can at least claim they're playing what Holst wrote.
100
Mr. Symphonist @deeplyclassical.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
The weekend starts here, my dears. Cheers!
0270
Mr. Symphonist @deeplyclassical.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Happy #NewReleaseFriday! As conductor of the Concert Spirituel, François-Joseph Gossec (1734-1829) made Haydn symphonies the toast of Paris. He also composed and conducted plenty of his own. Try music by the man who made France go symphony mad right here. ▶️ www.tunemymusic.com/share/9cfM2Y...
https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/9957831--gossec-symphonies-op-vi
1121
Mr. Symphonist @deeplyclassical.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Arnold Whittall thought the Keats setting "Britten’s finest achievement up to that date". The accompaniment is for strings alone, giving the horn player time to leave the stage for the epilogue, its distant reprise evoking the singer's final thoughts as consciousness slips at last away to sleep.
John Constable (1776–1837): Rising Moon, c. 1810.
230
Mr. Symphonist @deeplyclassical.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
"Turn the key deftly in the oilèd wards, And seal the hushèd Casket of my Soul." Home from hospital, Britten set the final poem. Keats's sonnet 'To Sleep' gathers the serenade's threads together as the poet begs for release from daylight woes and the burdens of conscience "burrowing like a mole".
John Keats (1795-1821). Posthumous portrait by William Hilton, c. 1822.
120
Mr. Symphonist @deeplyclassical.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
After the nightmare visions of the Elegy (William Blake's "The Sick Rose") and anonymous Lyke-Wake Dirge, it's a relief to return to a bucolic realm with Ben Jonson's "Hymn to Diana", the horn transforming from incubus and succubus into the "excellently bright" goddess of the moon and the hunt.
Portrait of Ben Jonson (1572-1637) by by Abraham van Blyenberch.

https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw03528/Benjamin-Ben-Jonson?_gl=1*k61pak*_up*MQ..*_ga*OTA3Nzk5OTUzLjE3ODg4NDgzODg.*_ga_3D53N72CHJ*czE3ODg4NDgzODckbzEkZzAkdDE3ODg4NDgzODckajYwJGwwJGgw"Diana and Actaeon" by Jacopo Bassano (c. 1510-1592). Diana was the Roman goddess of the moon and the hunt.
120
Mr. Symphonist @deeplyclassical.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
"... the Baroque panoply of the starry sky, the heavy angels of sleep; but also the cloak of evil - the worm in the heart of the rose, the sense of sin in the heart of man." The sequence leads us from evening warmth to stone cold night terrors in the two poems at the Serenade's sick heart.
Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809-1892), c. 1888. William Blake (1757-1827). This pencil drawing is believed to be the only self-portrait by the visionary poet, painter and printmaker.
140
Mr. Symphonist @deeplyclassical.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Britten dedicated the Serenade to Sackville-West, who wrote: "The subject is Night and its prestigia [conjuring tricks]: the lengthening shadow, the distant bugle at sunset ..." Alfred Lord Tennyson follows Cotton, his "Blow, Bugle, Blow" giving Brain plenty of opportunity to show off his skill.
"Harvest Home, Sunset: The Last Load" by John Linnell (1792-1882)

https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/linnell-harvest-home-sunset-the-last-load-n02060
140
Mr. Symphonist @deeplyclassical.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
Any day you get to watch two films as different and as great as these is a damn fine day indeed.
060
Mr. Symphonist @deeplyclassical.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
Britten instructs the player to play without valves, using only the horn's natural harmonics. The result is that certainly notes deliberately sound out-of-tune, opening and closing the audience's ears onto an other-worldly musical landscape - "a primordial realm" (Alex Ross).
Herne the Hunter, who haunts Windsor forest by night according to folklore (and Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor). He is often depicted blowing his hunting horn as he rides.
280
Mr. Symphonist @deeplyclassical.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
Drop some SHADES.
Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971), circa 1968.
1194
Mr. Symphonist @deeplyclassical.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
It may have been Sackville-West who introduced Britten to Charles Cotton's Pastoral "The Evening Quatrains", the first poem in the Serenade's final sequence. Its shadow-streaked evocation of evening giving way to night would have been a wonderful way to start, but Britten had an even better idea.
Edward Sackville-West (1901-1965) in 1938. Edward ('Eddy') Sackville-West, 5th Baron Sackville, was a music critic who, together with Desmond Shawe-Taylor, compiled The Record Guide, Britain's first comprehensive guide to classical music on record, first published in 1951. In 1943 he wrote "The Rescue: a Melodrama for Broadcasting", for which Britten composed a score.Charles Cotton (1630-1687)
160
Mr. Symphonist @deeplyclassical.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
Another element in the work's creation was Britten's friend Edward Sackville-West. Before his illness Britten had scribbled the word "Night" on the flyleaf of his Oxford Book of English Verse, and written the titles of 16 poems. With Sackville-West's help he whittled the texts down to six.
"Poems from the works of Charles Cotton", one of two books that Britten searched for poems on the theme of night for use in his Serenade for Tenor, Horn & Strings."The Oxford Book of English Verse", one of two books that Britten searched for poems on the theme of night for use in his Serenade for Tenor, Horn & Strings. Britten's copy was a prize he had been awarded on leaving Gresham's School in 1930.
150
Mr. Symphonist @deeplyclassical.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
Happy #NewReleaseFriday! There's such a deluge of symphony & orchestral releases this week that it's hard to know where to start, but among yet more Shostakovich, Bruckner & Mahler, there are two that caught my eye. What'll catch your eyes & ears? Find out here 🔽 www.tunemymusic.com/share/y5H4ZE...
Pieter van Maldere (1729-1768), a Flemist violinist and composer who was one of the early pioneers of the symphony

https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/9889228--van-maldere-pieter-symphonies-vol-1Ernst von Dohnányi (1877-1960) composed his Symphony No. 2 at the time of his departure from war-torn Hungary during World War II. A colossal work for extraordinarily large orchestra lasting about an hour.

https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/9868867--ern-dohnanyi-symphony-no-2-ruralia-hungarica
081
Mr. Symphonist @deeplyclassical.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
Did you get any record tokens for your 50th birthday @loveinner.bsky.social? #NewRelease
https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/9958010--bruno-walter-the-complete-warner-remastered-edition
3141
Mr. Symphonist @deeplyclassical.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
What he got instead was a song cycle for tenor voice and horn as equal partners, setting poems on the theme of night. Britten wrote these "horn songs" as he called them, in a fevered rush while convalescing from a severe bout of measles: "It is not important stuff, but quite pleasant, I think"
The Grove Hospital in Tooting Grove, London, where Britten composed the Serenade for Tenor, Horn & Strings while convalescing from measles. Most of the hospital buildings were demolished in 1973.
190
Mr. Symphonist @deeplyclassical.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
As bowled over by Brain's gentle, intelligent character as he was by the accuracy and flexibility of his playing, Britten needed little persuasion when Brain asked him for a concert piece. By the time he composed it, Britten's inspiration had gone well beyond the concerto Brain might have expected.
Dennis Brain photographed by Howard Coster in 1956, the year before his death in a car accident at the age of 36.
3140
Mr. Symphonist @deeplyclassical.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
One reason Haydn is my favourite composer is because deep diving into his symphonies for the first time helped get me through some trials in 2016/17. Few Bruckner releases did much for me during and since his anniversary year in 2024, but this year's crop has been excellent.
https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/9863722--bruckner-symphony-no-4-romantichttps://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/9957858--capucon-friends-bruckner-symphony-no-7-in-e-major-chamber-versionhttps://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/9881455--bruckner-9
120
Mr. Symphonist @deeplyclassical.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
Follow it with #NewReleases2026 #167 for a bracing comparison (different edition notwithstanding). My Bruckner record of the year so far, so I'm looking forward to hearing Hurwitz pan it.
https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/9879501--bruckner-symphony-no-3-wagner-symphony
130
Mr. Symphonist @deeplyclassical.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
I'd also just got my first CD player, so I rushed straight to my new favourite place, the classical music department in the basement of Heffers bookshop in Cambridge, and spent money I didn't have on the recording that unlocked the door to Britten's world for me, and proceeded to play it to death.
3280
Mr. Symphonist @deeplyclassical.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
If the reviews are right then something tells me I'm gonna need this. #NowDrinking a negroni #NowWatching The Substance (2024)
2150
Mr. Symphonist @deeplyclassical.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
Plus Tchaikovsky dreams of winter, and a new ballet based on Pandora's Box. Click on the link above to enjoy (or maybe endure) them all on your favourite streaming service.
https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/9890705--tchaikovsky-symphony-no-1-winter-dreams-in-g-minorhttps://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/9878509--mere-mortals
030
Mr. Symphonist @deeplyclassical.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
Happy #NewReleaseFriday! This week: three Beethoven symphonies in intriguing context plus No. 3 for three. And two releases Dave Hurwitz loved to hate: a "deathly dull" Leningrad and "monumentally stupid" Mahler 5. Will you agree? Try them and see. ▶️ www.tunemymusic.com/share/p1Cato...
https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/9879285--mahler-symphony-no-5-on-period-instrumentshttps://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/9969884--beethoven-for-three-symphony-no-3-eroica-and-leonore-overture-no-3https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/9879504--beethoven-the-italianshttps://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/9881875--shostakovich-symphony-no-7
5161
Mr. Symphonist @deeplyclassical.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
Grimes ahoy! This week's #TheCompleteBritten reaches not only one of my favourite Britten works, not just one of my favourite operas, but one of my favourite pieces of any kind by anyone. Any other recordings I should consider besides these four?
https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/7949419--britten-peter-grimeshttps://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/8803345--britten-peter-grimeshttps://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/7928754--britten-peter-grimeshttps://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/8027983--britten-peter-grimes
6231