Thanks Barry, I will definitely be buying that one; have you heard the Janowski Ring cycle? I think he's a great conductor. I was interested in your comments cf non-London orchestras. In recent months I have been to both Halle and BBC Phil. concerts at the Bridgewater Hall, and have had some wonderful evenings. The regional orchestras and and companies in the UK have to fight a little harder for their audience I think, and have a core group of regular concert goers who are both loyal and knowledgeable. Welsh National Opera, Opera North, the Scottish National Orchestra [think of their Sibelius with Vanska!], plus the Ulster and Bournmouth Orchestras who make excellent Naxos recordings, plus the CBSO, all testify to a very healthy music scene in the UK whch does not depend on what happens in London. The regional festivals also play their part; I have been attending the Huddersfield Contemporary Festival for years, and it is always vibrant and challenging. The music scene in our capital city is beyond compare, and when I look at the culture pages in the broadsheets I am sometimes green with envy. But you can't go to everything, and certainly from the performers' perspective, you're playing to a full house nearly every night, given the zillions of tourists who also attend concerts and operas whilst on vacation. And we all know what familiarity breeds...
I was lucky to be at the BBC SO with Noseda at their M10 concert in 2007 - it was excellent, and I look forward to that CD as well. I am yet to be won over to the idea of a 'completed' M10, but the sheer beauty of some passages makes me understand why some composers want to finish the job. It should make us celebrate the completed works even more, and recognise the colossal effort and hard graft of the man in addition to the genius and the inspiration.
