I had in mind that this blog would be rather more frequently updated than my website, and would include things I’ve been listening to. It’s been a bit more haphazard than that, unfortunately, but I hope to improve on that!

I listened to yesterday to the new Naxos Historical issue of Bartok’s American recordings – highly enjoyable, and in excellent sound. The excerpts from Mikrokosmos were a particular delight. Last weekend I finally found time to listen to the Gobbi/Christoff/de los Angeles recording of Simon Boccanegra, also reissued on Naxos Historical, with the vocal score to hand. It’s a fascinating work, and hearing Gobbi heading the cast makes me curious to hear quite what Placido Domingo does with the title role – I understand there will be a live BBC relay of one of his Covent Garden performances later this year.

On the website side of things, there are several new items, which will be appearing within the next few days, including symphonies conducted by Dean Dixon and Jascha Horenstein, an early “Entry of the Gladiators” nominally by the “Zonophone Military Band”, but actually John Mackenzie-Rogan and the Coldstream Guards Band. There will also be a balalaika orchestra, and one of Eugene Goossens recordings for Victor.

There will be also be a late 1940s 78 featuring Dennis Noble, but one which the baritone’s discography in The Record Collector doesn’t include. It was a private issue by EMI promoting the National Savings scheme. Noble gets a few brief solos, as does a C Wright, presumably a singer of lighter fare, whose first name I have been unable to track down.