Rapid hits: Part 1 of 3 --

(1) MEDIC NEEDED FOR VAUGHAN WILLIAMS'S LARK? [Oct. 9]
(2) ONE SOLOIST, MULTIPLE VIEWS OF VW'S LARK [Oct. 10]
(3) A WHOOSH OF MEMORY OF AN EPIC CLARINET GUY [Oct. 11]


(1) WHO LOVES A WHEEZING, WHINY, OR ASTHMATIC LARK?

While harking unto our musical larks, as I played with Haydn's I tripped over a snag that had somehow never caught me. -- Ken

Group I -- performances I own which share a particular oddness


Paul Robertson, violin; with the rest of the Medici Quartet (David Matthews, violin; Paul Silverthorne, viola; Anthony Lewis, cello). EMI, recorded in Abbey Road Studio No. 1, London, Jan. 16, 1976

István Kertész, violin; with the rest of the Festetics Quartet (Erika Petöfi, violin; Péter Ligeti, viola; Rezsö Pertorini, cello). Harmonia Mundi France, recorded in the Unitarian Church of Budapest, June-Dec. 1991

Simon Standage, violin; with the rest of the Salomon Quartet (Micaela Comberti, violin; Trevor Jones, viola; Jennifer Ward Clarke, cello). Hyperion, recorded Oct. 11-13, 1995

Hubert Buchberger, violin; with the rest of the Buchberger Quartet (Julia Greve, violin; Joachim Etzel, viola; Helmut Sohler, cello). Brilliant Classics, recorded in the Evangelische Burgkirche Nieder-Rosbach, Germany, May 17-19, 2007

Group II, or shall we say: (a) "Subgroup II-A"

Among others, some singing larks of the nonverbal kind are here to wish everyone: Happy New Year! (quick version)

HAPPY NEW YEAR FROM VIENNA -- FIRST BY WAY
OF NEW YORK -- AND, OH YES, FROM MUNICH TOO


[in English, lyrics by Howard Dietz] Lily Pons (s), Adele; Ljuba Welitsch (s), Rosalinde; Charles Kullman (t), Eisenstein; Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Eugene Ormandy, cond. Columbia-CBS-Sony, recorded Dec. 24 & 29, 1950 & Jan. 7, 1951

[in English, lyrics by Howard Dietz] Patrice Munsel (s), Adele; Marguerite Piazza (s), Rosalinde; Charles Kullman (t), Eisenstein; Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Eugene Ormandy, cond. Live performance, Jan. 20, 1951

Edita Gruberová (s), Adele; Kiri Te Kanawa (s), Rosalinde; Wolfgang Brendel (b), Eisenstein; Vienna Philharmonic, André Previn, cond. Philips, recorded in the Musikverein, November 1990

Erika Köth (s), Adele; Hilde Gueden (s), Rosalinde; Waldemar Kmentt (t), Eisenstein; Vienna Philharmonic, Herbert von Karajan, cond. Decca, recorded in the Sofiensaal, June 1960
And here's an actual New Year's Eve performance:

Carol Malone (s), Adele; Gundula Janowitz (s), Rosalinde; Eberhard Wächter (b), Eisenstein; Bavarian State Orchestra, Carlos Kleiber, cond. Live performance from the Bavarian State Opera (Munich), Dec. 31, 1974
[NOTE: More than a third of this clip is applause. I was all set to snip it out, but even 48 years after the fact I just couldn't strip away the performers' earned plaudits. -- Ed.]

[We'll be hearing the full version of this trio in the follow-up expanded-coverage version of this post scheduled for tomorrow. -- Ed.]

NOW, HAPPY NEW YEAR FROM HAYDN'S LARK

Fledermaus of course is meat-and-potatoes (or maybe we should say champagne-and-caviar?) New Year's material, and we've got more of it in tomorrow's expanded post, but it occurred to me that in a New Year's frame of mind we might finish up our business with at least the nonvocal contingent of the musical larks we've been pursuing, starting with Haydn's -- in two really lovely and interestingly different performances (one of which we're going to hear in its entirety in a moment). -- Ed.