Britten: Four Sea Interludes & Passacaglia (1976, André Previn/LSO) 24-Bit/96-kHz Vinyl Rip

These late era analogue recordings are likely to be well known to many who collected LPs in the 1970s although they will not be quite as familiar as the contents of some of the other GROC series discs.
These are stereo ADD recordings. In the case of the Britten Sinfonia and the Grimes episodes the recordings derive from an LP first issued in dual compatible stereo and SQ quad. That LP was a celebrated hi-fi artefact with the clean satin openness of the LSO strings almost as impressive as the crashingly captured climaxes, growling, thunderous and metallic. Every sound is accommodated in a grand acoustic. I still have the LP. The grunt and gasp of this famous recording can be heard instantly at the start of the Sinfonia. Its subtle splendour and lively brightness is specially evident in the Dies Irae (tr. 2) which rips along, brightly catching every half-light and sounding remarkably like Malcolm Arnold! Cripes! There are some superb French horns at 1.42 in that track. They are caught in all their roughened and rollicking glory.
I'll wager that most people’s LPs had more play on the Grimes side than the Sinfonia. Is there anyone who does not know the Grimes Interludes now? The violins, ‘in excelsis’, in Dawn are captured in pristine magnificence. The patterning of Sunday Morning, with its stylised church bells, rings out in chilly definition contrasting with the warm hesitations of Moonlight. Storm which perhaps lumbers a mite at Previn's initial speed. This is all the better to celebrate the eye-of-the-storm peace at 2.55. This pacific interlude resolves into the thunderous descent steps that close the movement. They sound, for all the world, like the precipitous avalanche at the end of the first movement of Bax’s Sixth (compare the Lloyd-Jones, Naxos version). The Passacaglia ‘anhang’ to the Grimes Interludes has a telling symphonic-tragic gravity. This it shares with Berkeley's Nocturne (which I will keep promoting until someone - preferably Vernon Handley - records it). This reading has exceptional steely strength and concentration. In Previn's hands it also sounds somewhat like Malcolm Arnold. Finally it sinks resignedly into the silence from which it emerged.
( Rob Barnett - MusicWeb International, 2004 )


Track Listing:

1. Britten: Sinfonia Da Requiem, Op.20
performed by London Symphony Orchestra conducted by André Previn
- Lachrymosa - Andante ben misurato
- Dies Irae - Allegro con fuoco
- Requiem Aeternam - Andante molto tranquillo

2. Britten: Four Sea Interludes, Op.33a (from "Peter Grimes")
performed by London Symphony Orchestra conducted by André Previn
- Dawn - Lento e tranquillo
- Sunday Morning - Allegro spiritoso
- Moonlight - Andante comodo e rubato
- Storm - Presto con fuoco

3. Britten: Passacaglia, Op.33b (from "Peter Grimes")
performed by London Symphony Orchestra conducted by André Previn