1PD25 Hamilton Harty
composer, conductor and arranger
Although now best known as a conductor, during his lifetime Hamilton Harty enjoyed a fine reputation as composer, arranger and accompanist. This disc celebrates all four talents.
It contains recordings made between 1926 and 1934 with Sir Hamilton Harty conducting the Halle Orchestra unless othewise shewn:
Nymphs and Shepherds from Act VI The Libertine (1692) (Purcell)
Dance Duet from Act I Hansel und Gretel (1893) (Humperdinck)
Manchester School Children's Choir
Water Music (1715-17) - 1 Allegro (Handel arr Harty)
London Philharmonic Orchestra
Irish Symphony - Scherzo (Harty)
With the Wild Geese (Harty)
The Corsair Overture (Berlioz)
Royal Hunt and Storm from Les Troyens (Berlioz)
Hungarian Rhapsody No 4 (Liszt arr Doppler)
Flight of the Bumble Bee from Act III The Tsar Saltan (1900) (Rimsky Korsakov)
Kovanshchina - Prelude (1886) (Mussorgsky)
"There is great musicianship here, even if the price is sometimes a hectic scramble, as in the superlative Berlioz performances. Wonderful to hear Handel on such a grand scale, too, after a diet of authenticity." Michael Tanner in BBC Muisc Magazine May 2008
Robert Matthew-Walker in February 2008 International Record Reivew writes: This disc admirably transferred by David Michell opens with one of the most famous of all 78 rpm discs - Purcell's "Nymphs and Shepherds"("the Libertine") with the Manchester Schools Children's choir from 1929. After 80 years the freshness and excellence of the singing and Harty's superbly right tempos give great pleasure, the more so in this very fine and almost silent transfer.
A very worthwhile tribute to a great musician
Rob Cowan in The Gramophone March 2008 writes "75 minutes of consistent musical pleasure...vital performances of two of Harty's own works With the Wild Geese and the scherzo from the Irish Symphony... we're given spontaneous sounding Berlioz and one of the most thirlling performances of Liszt Hungarian Rhapsody ever committed to disc, the Fourth."
