From the archives
Andrew Mcgregor revisits the remarkably diverse repertoire of the Academy of St Martin in the Fields
‘The Academy made records and records made the Academy.’ Lady Marriner’s pithy observation on the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, the institution she ran for her husband Sir Neville Marriner, is borne out in this 60th Anniversary Edition (Decca 485 0093; 60 CDS). Its first concert, ‘A Survey of the Baroque Concerto’, was given in November
1959 at the landmark church in Trafalgar Square, with repertoire they took into their first recording sessions in 1961: Albinoni, Torelli, Corelli and Locatelli – ‘the Italian ice cream merchants’ as Neville Marriner fondly referred to them. Those first L’oiseau Lyre recordings reveal the essence of the Academy sound: a dozen top string players led from the violin by Marriner, who wanted energy with lightness and transparency, precision plus the instinctive flexibility of chamber musicians. Marriner loved recording, thriving in the industry’s three-hour session format in an increasingly wide range of repertoire as the ASMF’S relationship with the Argo label took off from the mid-’60s. Their best-selling Vivaldi Four Seasons with soloist Alan Loveday still sounds fresh, even alongside Iona Brown’s ASMF recording a decade later; the early ’80s Handel Concerti Grossi are surprisingly stylish, though by now period instrument specialists were taking over Baroque repertoire.
With Philips came more ambitious projects: complete Mozart Piano Concertos with Alfred Brendel (sadly not included here), the Mozart Edition, Haydn cello concertos with Heinrich Schiff, Mendelssohn symphonies, Dvoˇrák, Grieg and Sibelius. Other collaborations include the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto with Leila Josefowicz, Weber clarinet concertos with Andrew Marriner, Murray Perahia directing Bach from the keyboard, Julia Fischer in Bach violin concertos and, more recently, tautly energetic Beethoven symphonies with current music director Joshua Bell from 2012. Not forgetting Stravinsky’s Pulcinella, Strauss’s Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme, Robert Tear in Britten’s Nocturne, Finzi’s Dies Natalis with Ian Bostridge and Tippett’s Corelli Fantasia...
Andrew Mcgregor is the presenter of
Radio 3’s Record Review, broadcast each Saturday morning from 9am until 11.45am