Review: Gorgeous, Glittering Britten Prince of the Pagodas from Hallé

[@robhaynes4410]

Easily Britten's greatest purely orchestral work, & I treasure the Knussen recording. So gratifying to see it being recorded again. Looking forward to giving it a listen.

[@HoraceInExile]

Going to stream this right now; thank you! I appreciate all these videos, but the best ones (for me) are those that introduce composers or works new to me.

[@robkeeleycomposer]

A massively underrated score, full of memorable, ravishing invention. Some delicious Stravinsky and Prokofiev parodies. And no Peter Pears! I’ve lived with the recording by Knussen, my old teacher, for 36 years, but will definitely seek this out.

[@kestrel4733]

Seems to be Kahchun Wong’s first commercial recording as he takes over for Mark Elder at the Hallé. Very nice first showing! On a note beyond the music, Wong has a very distinctive/fun to watch conducting style reminiscent of Yuri Simonov the Russian conductor. There is an amusing clip of him conducting the George Enescu Philharmonic in the finale of Tchaikovsky 5 here on KZbin. Been getting a good number of these young conductors with more normal career trajectories than Klaus Makela getting their first commercial spins in the last year or two. Joanna Mallwitz’s Weill on DG, Raphael Payare, Christian Macelaru all making very satisfactory records! I know Elim Chan and Karina Canellakis are in the same boat as well on Alpha and Pentatone respectively but have not checked their releases out yet.

[@1998mchp]

Absolutely superb score. Drove Britten to distraction to finally finish it. Knussen's version was very good. Well worth picking up the digital hi-res 24/48. Especially if you have a good personal digtial audio player/ stereo set up with a good DAC. Lucky to see a very rare production danced in London about 10 years ago. Lucky also to see Glorianna too at the Royal Opera in London around 2013 - Britten centenary. Have a velum bound score signed by Britten (he sent one to Stravinksy - who was suitbley caustically sniffy about it - according to Robert Craft).

[@davidaltschuler9687]

The Knussen is included in an excellent EMI 8 CD budget box of Britten Orchestral Works. All the concertos, major orch works. Might not cost much more than this new item.