Leslie Jones and the Little Orchestra of London
Thu, Mar 29 2012, 10:59AM
I make no special claims for Leslie Jones's Haydn recordings, though i like them, but I have just keyed in his name and the name of the orchestra into the search box atthe head of this page, and got a "no result" return. This may not, in fact, be true for "Gramophone", but it's an accurate statement of the position in the UK CD market just now. Does he really deserve that?
Thu, Mar 29 2012, 1:35PM
#2
RE: Leslie Jones and the Little Orchestra of London
Thanks - fascinating and pretty fair Haydn review in Roger Fiske's usual (and very individual) style, which I remember reading when it came out. Well worth revisiting, but as you say, mentioning it doesn't help revisiting the recordings themselves on CD. Charity shop LPs of the Pye issues of the earlier symphonies tend - and this must indicate something - to be heavily played and battle-scarred, and more often than not, mono. Almost as battle-scarred as some jazz records, in fact. Other folk must have liked them too.
Fri, Mar 30 2012, 9:02PM
#3
RE: Leslie Jones and the Little Orchestra of London
I remember buying a Nonesuch Box Set of three LPs in the late 1960s or early seventies of the Haydn Paris Symphonies. Alas I no longer have these, but I do remember them as revelatory. I had been used to "big band" Haydn at that time and found the Leslie Jones approach so refreshing. I wonder why these recordings and others from this conductor have been ignored by the CD re-issuers. Perhaps they would no longer meet the test of historical authenticity, but their musicality {as I remember it} was of a very high order.
This doesn't really answer your question, but you might be interested in these reviews of said orchestra from Gramophone in 1969:
Haydn
'Scandinavian Music'
Rachel Cramond
Gramophone Publishing Executive