Page 170 - ASMF Marriner 100 Coverage Book

These choices resulted from the fact that the image of the conductor remained
indisputably linked to the baroque and classical repertoires. For the present
centenary, Eloquence Australia, which published in 2022, with the original
sleeves, a limited edition box set of Haydn’s symphonies, brings together, in 19
CDs, the Handel recordings from Decca. No novelties, rarities or originality
(Messiah, Gross concertos and various known works), but a thematic compilation
such as it had not yet been produced.

Decca international has a more unexpected box set: a complete Beethoven. It
had never been collected as such, but was indeed available from two
sources: Symphonies n bone 1 And 2Then 4recorded in the first half of the 1970s, in
LP, and digital recordings of the other symphonies dating from the end of the
1980s. The whole is supplemented by the excellent disc of the dances and

contradances and by two versions of the Violin Concertoone with Iona Brown
(Argo), the other with Gidon Kremer (Philips), both from 1980.

Two major lessons. First, the symphonies show that the image of Marriner as a
good craftsman to whom one did not go for things supposedly so serious is a
regrettable condescending posture. Marriner took great care in these
recordings. The versions with moderate numbers on modern instruments, if
they had been considered and published in this way in a box set, it would have
been well above Tilson Thomas, a very interesting proposition, certainly eclipsed
by Harnoncourt (Teldec).

Contrary lesson: there is indeed “utilitarian Marriner”, where the leader handles
current affairs. Iona Brown is very ordinary in the Violin Concerto by Beethoven
and the conductor is disinvested from the introduction. Eleven months later, it is
an unrecognizable Marriner who accompanies Gidon Kremer: the soloist is
fascinating, the stakes are high (he is one of the first 61 recorded digitally) and
the direction, fascinating!

Unexpected legacy

To see that Marriner is one of the most recorded conductors, one need only look

at his EMI legacy. While the leader is associated with Philips, Decca and Argo,
what are some of his EMI recordings that you could cite? We strictly remember a
few Mozarts after the complete Philips symphony. Now Warner brings
everything together in a box, and it includes, in all, 80 CDs!

So we remember, little by little, Marriner, more or less abandoned by Philips in
favor of Gardiner and his old instruments, becoming the only one, or almost,
who could still record Bach, Haydn and Mozart – for EMI – with a chamber