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A must buy for me too but how will it measure up to the classic Marilyn Horne, Renata Scotto, James McCracken set on CBS?

The selections do indeed give an excellent survey of what Samson has to offer, and also a good idea of the quality of the performance and recording. Buy with confidence!

No, I've heard nothing, but if the CDs have only been received in Bern this week it's going to be a few days at least, I imagine.

I sang in a choral medley from The Music Man a few years ago and really enjoyed the songs but, apart from 76 Trombones from time to time, I can't remember hearing any of the other numbers, let alone the whole musical, getting an airing over here. Willson's two symphonies were a disappointment, I agree. None of the spark and colour of the musical, just rather academic and tedious as I recall. Anyway, as we moderators say, back to Raff's Samson,

I do agree that the SCO sounds underpowered, particularly so in the Henselt excerpts. I may buy the Bronsart download for Paul Wee's pianism but it'll be a whim if I do and Wee seems to have full albums on his YouTube channel, so there'll probably be the opportunity to hear the whole recording before deciding.

Thanks, Alan, that's helpful. Amazingly the whole thing has been uploaded to YouTube by Naxos here, so one can judge for oneself, I suppose. I asked because I found the cpo Vasco da Gama (interesting that Naxos have reverted to Meyerbeer's original title) a disappointment after so much hype. I must say I thought Spyres sounds pretty good in what I've heard of it so far, but my expectations are notoriously low compared to yours .

Has anyone yet had a chance to compare the new Naxos release of Meyerbeer's L'Africaine with the earlier cpo release? With Michael Spyres in the role of Vasco it's a very tempting buy.

Fantastic. Thanks, Fred.

I've seen several comments both in this thread and on YouTube that this would be difficult, but possible for a composer of sufficient skill to achieve but that would no doubt also mean that it would be an expensive exercise. I've just been listening to the recording (which is still in our Downloads Board here, by the way) but it's very muddy and recessed, so a fair amount of imagination would be required too.

Ah well, thanks Gareth.

I'll hold my hand up and admit that both the Bowen symphonies on the Chandos CD are very much to my taste, they receive splendid performances although I wouldn't really call either a masterpiece.

Re-reading this thread I'm a little confused about the question of the "lost" Symphony No.3. Gareth and former member Albion were doing some fine sleuthing and in this post Albion reports that de Wolfe confirmed that they had the score and then in this later post Albion wrote that he and Gareth were going to examine in person the scores stored by de Wolfe but there's no mention of the result of that visit, if it actually took place. I have a copy of the recording of the 1954 broadcast of the performance of the Third by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra under Ian Whyte but it's a long way from ideal and a modern recording would be a great thing to have.

Can you update us on the fate of the score please, Gareth?

The May catalogue is now "up", but is empty. There's a note:

IMPORTANT! Dear Customers: due to our receiving, charging, packing, and shipping partner having sustained significant damage in recent storms, we won't be able to bring you a May 2024 catalogue. Normal service will be resumed as soon as possible. Thank you for your forbearance!

Here's a trailer for the recording.

I'm sure that Fred can be more specific but the last I heard it was scheduled for late April or during May. So, within the next few weeks unless it's been delayed.

Despite repeated listens I've jut failed to engage with this work. It certainly sounds appealing but there's an emptiness to it, as if it was a student exercise written out of duty rather than out of compulsion to create. So, as Alan writes, some of the elements are there: promising material, inventive and colourful orchestration but the drive to create something memorable is somehow lacking.