To be honest, I am not sure if I have heard Benjamin Britten's Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra without narration.
On one hand, I have never been particularly bothered by the narration, yet I think it might be nice to hear the music on its own terms.
In any case, this one is played as fine as you would expect from Antal Doráti, a colorful conductor is ever there was one.
Sean Connery must have been a real prize for Decca in 1966, for the actor was between Thunderball and You Only Live Twice. When Connery's Scottish brogue comes out, with those rolled Rs, the reading is special, but for the most part, he speaks in a relatively straight-forward manner.
If you already have your favorite version of these works, no need to make a special visit to this one. No fault of this recording, for it is very good. I don't think I detected anything special from the Phase 4 engineering, despite the infamous processes involved with that style of recording.
There is wit paired with sober episodes here, thus it is probably my favorite of the composer's cello works.
A witty pizzicato movement and another sarcastic March lays on the lighter side, while the Dialog and Elegy concentrate on the lyrical moments. The cello really gets a manic showcase in the final moto perpetuo. Britten was a keen pianist, thus the relationship between cello and piano is not one sided; both are equal participants.
I have long been a fan of Dutch cellist Pieter Wispelwey, here with Croatian pianist Dejan Lazić. The two carry an energy through this music rarely seen elsewhere, although there are plenty of recordings out there of this work, including that of Mstislav Rostropovich with Britten at the keyboard from 1961 which should be heard as well.
Recording Round-up
Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra, op. 34
Sean Connery, narrator
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Antal Doráti, conductor
Decca, 1966
Cello Sonata, op. 65
Pieter Wispelwey, cello
Dejan Lazić, piano
Channel Classics, 2003
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