AtDTDA 32: Fantasia on a Fantasia of Thomas Tallis Pt. 4

[robinlandseadel at comcast.net]

A selected discography or: what's on the shelf, right now?

Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis is a favorite work. 
There is a generic "class", a sub-phylum as it were, of classical 
music---the cosmic/life changing slow movement, adagios
that go on for about twenty minutes or so, like the slow 
movements in Late Beethoven---in particular in the last five 
[or so, depending] string quartets. There's the "late period" 
of Schubert's truncated life, the slow movements of the String 
Quintet, the Last Quartet, the last Piano Sonata. Bruckner can 
give you your money's worth with his sometimes Rilkian 
soundscapes. But the friendliest, sweetest, the most 
born-from-Mother-Earth of the the lot is the Tallis Fantasia. 
And it's durn purdy too.

That first recording I mentioned---Eugene Ormandy, 
Philadelphia Orchestra---was recorded in the late sixties 
and is one of Columbia's nicer sounding classical productions 
from that era. Ormandy did what he could to maintain the glorious 
string section that Stokowski installed in Philadelphia. Ormandy's 
recording has the fattest string sound, much to the music's 
advantage. 

http://www.sonyclassical.com/music/62645/main.html

The usual fall-back is the Neville Marriner version with the 
Academy of Saint Martin's in the Fields, just 'round the
corner from T.W.I.T. HQ. Or was it the Gardnerian temple? 
In any cast, Marriner makes for a more "historically informed" 
performance, with chamber-scale sonorities and the reverse 
anachronism of sprung rhythms, a rather fey tendency to 
double-dot. Which, considering the nature of Faery Trad. 
makes it even more authentic. It was recorded in the seventies 
by somebody who knew how to use the church's lush acoustic 
without muddying up the music's textures.

http://www.play.com/Music/CD/4-/801952/Tallis-Fantasia-Greensleves/Product.html

Marriner and the ASMF re-recorded the work for Philips:

http://www.amazon.com/o/ASIN/B00000419V/002-6527259-9375221?SubscriptionId=0B8B3
1S9QVGFY0FMK082

I prefer the older Argo/Decca/London version.

Leonard Slatkin recorded the Fantasia with the Saint Louis 
Symphony on an early [1981] digital recording for Teldec. 
The performance is similar to Ormandy's, the sound is a 
bit more up-to-date. The couplings: Saties Gymnopedies 
1 & 3, The Samuel Barber Agagio for Strings, Faure's 
Pavane and Grainger's "Danny Boy" make for an 
interesting program, different from the usual all-British albums.

http://www.amazon.com/Vaughan-Williams-Fantasia-Strings-Grainger/dp/B000003CSO

http://store.acousticsounds.com/browse_detail.cfm?Title_ID=14588

"lark ascending", a "London" compilation of Vaughan-Williams adagios,
features Barry Wordsworth leading the New Queen's Hall Orchestra
in the performance of the Tallis Fantasia. The results are in the same
general direction as Marriner/ASMF but more romantic, fatter and 
furrier. The 1994 recording is particularly fine.

http://www.amazon.com/Lark-Ascending-Sounds-Vaughan-Williams/dp/B0000042HD

[I'm not a shill for Amazon, but this is the easiest way to show 
you cd covers for ease of identification whilst stroling through 
another May street sale.]

I'm a techno-nerd, so I jumped onto SACD, thus:

Maurice Abravanel, Utah Symphony Orchestra:

http://www.amazon.ca/Tallis-Fantasia-Hybr-Vaughan-Williams/dp/B000066TXV

It's one of the slower and thicker performances. Recorded in 1967.
It's nice to have it in print, but I would not have given it the nod for 
SACD issue, the sound is good, but it's not that good.

The James Judd performance with the New Zealand Symphony 
Orchestra was recorded from the ground up as a SACD, predictably
the sound is the best of all. I realise most of you don't have SACD 
players, don't worry:

http://www.amazon.com/Vaughan-Williams-Fantasia-Greensleeves-Thomas/dp/B0006IY4O
4

It's a hybrid issue, should play on any CD player and a good 
recording is a good recording is a good recording. Judd's 
approach is wonderfully direct, his tempos are on the quick 
side, there's more glory than sentiment. Possible new first 
choice. [yeah, yeah---I know, Comic Book Guy, right? Sorry and on to]

I can't seem to find the Stokowski recording in the post-yard-sale wreckage:

http://www.soundstage.com/music/reviews/rev069.htm

but that's a favorite as well. And I guess that's enough.

Thank you all for you indulgences overs the last few, it has been a joy.