Hoffnung is [was?] here!
Buck Bauer | ELDERSBURG, MD USA | 12/13/2006
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Not available here? Try Amazon.co.uk, the "United Kingdom" link at the bottom of the page. As of 10/2007 it was available there for £12.47 + shipping.
Some of this music helped to inspire Peter Schickele's insane P.D.Q. Bach compositions. [The 1956 concert, I'm guessing, since it was available in the U.S. on a vinyl LP.] If you know what I'm talking about, you'll enjoy this 2-CD set.
It contains recordings of three performances at the Royal Festival Hall: from 1961 "The Hoffnung Astronomical Music Festival," from 1958 "The Hoffnung Interplanetary Music Festival," and from 13 November 1956 the gem of the set, the famous "Hoffnung Music Festival Concert." I'll limit my comments to the 1956 concert, which I've had on vinyl LP since the 1970's.
Wacky music-mangling by otherwise-serious British composers:
A Grand Overture [Malcolm Arnold]
Concero for Hose-pipe and Strings [Leopold Mozart]
[with hornist Dennis Brain playing the garden hose]
Concerto Popolare [Reizenstein]
Surprise Symphony [Haydn, arr. Donald Swann]
Speech by Gerard Hoffnung introducing
Mazurka No.47 in A minor [Chopin, arr. Abrams, for tuba quartet]
[with Hoffnung himself playing the subcontrabass tuba]
Lochinvar [Searle]
Variations on "Annie Laurie" [Gordon Jacob]
"