Classical Music List is Flawed
According to a show on BBC Radio 2 yesterday this is the The People's Classical Chart Top 30, that is to say Britain's most widely heard classical music recordings.
1 Orff - O Fortuna From Carmina Burana (Kurt Eichhorn)
2 Vaughan Williams - Fantasia On A Theme By Thomas Tallis (Bernard Haitink)
3 Rimsky-Korsakov - Scheherazade (Charles Mackerras)
4 Tchaikovsky - The Sleeping Beauty (Mikhail Pletnev)
5 Schumann - Romance In F Sharp Major Op 28/2 (Joseph Cooper)
6 Delibes - Sylvia (Richard Bonynge)
7 Rachmaninov - Symphony No 2 (Vladimir Ashkenazy)
8 Holst - The Planets (James Loughran)
9 Tchaikovsky - The Sleeping Beauty (Valery Gergiev)
10 Schubert - Symphony No 5 (Neville Marriner)
11 Rachmaninov - Piano Concerto No 2 (Vladimir Ashkenazy)
12 Bizet - Carmen (Giuseppe Sinopoli)
13 Holst - The Planets (John Eliot Gardiner)
14 Vaughan Williams - The Lark Ascending (Sarah Chang)
15 Zipoli - Elevazione For Cello And Oboe (Robert Clark)
16 Beethoven - Symphony No 6, Pastoral (John Eliot Gardiner)
17 Grieg - Piano Concerto (Krystian Zimerman)
18 Tchaikovsky - Swan Lake (Charles Dutoit)
19 Litolff - Scherzo (From Concerto Symphonique No 4) (Peter Donohoe)
20 Holst - The Planets (Simon Rattle)
21 Vivaldi - The Four Seasons (Nigel Kennedy)
22 Rodrigo - Concierto De Aranjuez (Julian Bream)
23 Saint-Saens - Symphony No 3, Organ (Myung-Whun Chung)
24 Elgar - Cello Concerto (Jacqueline Du Pré)
25 Bruch - Violin Concerto No 1 (Maxim Vengerov)
26 Mendelssohn - Symphony No 4 In A Major, Italian (John Eliot Gardiner)
27 Orff - O Fortuna From Carmina Burana (Riccardo Muti)
28 Rimsky-Korsakov - Scheherazade (Seiji Ozawa)
29 Holst - The Planets (David Mathias Lloyd-Jones)
30 Mendelssohn - A Midsummer Night's Dream (Yoel Levi)
I don't believe it. . .as they saying goes. Do they seriously want me to believe that Bach's Air on a G-String, the music from the Hamlet ad, is played less often than some on this list? What about Dvorak's Largo from his New World Symphony (It's the music from the Hovis Advert)? This chart was supposed to cover adverts, lift music, radio plays etc etc.
Now I know all lists are basically daft but this one is UNBELIEVABLE!
2 comments:
I suppose the only consolation is that there are no recordings by the Five Priests, Angels Aloud, the Four Pillocks and whatever other ghastly get-togethers Sony Classical dream up. All the usual suspects are here, of course, although not the best recordings. Richard Hickox's recording of the Tallis Fantasia knocks spots off Haitink's. Still, at least there is no John Barry – as good as he is at film music.
Haitink's is absolutely awful, he just doesn't get it! I really like the Sinfonia Of London with Sir John Barbirolli. I also like the City Of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra with Norman Del Mar. I also ave a version with Sir Adrian Boult which also like.
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