# Neville Marriner - HIP or not?



## classical yorkist (Jun 29, 2017)

I love baroque music and I've picked up a few recordings by Marriner and his Academy of St Martin's group but I'm unsure as to whether he follows HIP or uses period instruments. I think his recordings sound wonderful, if perhaps a little slow at times, and often I see HIP names I recognise like Hogwood on the harpsichord but I can't find any definitive statement. I really like his Art of Fugue and Water Music recordings. Any help?


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## mbhaub (Dec 2, 2016)

Marriner was too good of a musician to buy into all the HIP practices. He used a smaller string section, but the instruments were modern, he embraced vibrato (he was himself a violinist in the LSO) and kept modern tuning. A very tasteful, professional musician. I heard someone refer to him as the Lawrence Welk of the HIP movement. Unfair and wrong. His recordings are always reliable, honest, beautiful and worthy of consideration. He brought a lot of baroque music to audiences by using the best modern practices. By the way, outside of the baroque and classical eras, he also recorded some music of the romantic era, often with unexpectedly exciting results. The last three Dvorak symphonies are wonderful. The Tchaikovsky Manfred, a Bruckner symphony, the Brahms -- all excellent.


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## premont (May 7, 2015)

Marriner is one of the greatest exponents of the pre-authentic style. But HIP he was not. I use to say, that even if e.g. Münchinger was preauthentic, he was HIP for his time (1950es), but Marriner maintained the preauthentic style far into the HIP "age".


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## Biffo (Mar 7, 2016)

Marriner was my introduction to a great deal of Bach, Handel and Vivaldi, including a live performance of the Brandenburgs in St Martin's. He was always lively and stylish and HIP in that he didn't go for the big band sound (and often slow tempi) that were current at the time. He had a wide repertoire and this included Haydn and Mozart. His recording of Beethoven Symphonies 1 & 2 is still my favourite for these works.


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## Bulldog (Nov 21, 2013)

I don't consider Marriner HIP, and I sure don't appreciate his Bach. I think he does his best in the lighter fare like Mozart's Serenades.


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## Merl (Jul 28, 2016)

As many have pointed out, much of Marriner's prodigious recording output is worth hearing. Many of my first accounts of works I still love were by him . His recordings seemed very popular with local CD libraries back in the 90s. His Schubert cycle is terrific.


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## joen_cph (Jan 17, 2010)

(....... sorry, double post)


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## joen_cph (Jan 17, 2010)

Has only little to do with HIP as we know it now. 

I prefer Marriner´s Baroque Argo recordings to a lot of nowaday´s HIP, btw. They are the highligt of his recorded oeuvre, IMO.
Vivaldi´s opus 3 in particular.


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## Triplets (Sep 4, 2014)

Ms unhipness has already been discussed. He still made a lot of worthy recordings. He was kind of a bridge between old time big band practices and the HIPP movement.
I think Ms recordings were best in the Classical and Baroque eras. I disagree with the poster who touted his Romantic era recordings.
I once saw him Conduct the Planets, and it's an experience best forgotten. His experience with regular symphony orchestras in general were not happy ones


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## bharbeke (Mar 4, 2013)

Good Romantic works I've heard by Marriner and the ASMF:

Grieg's Peer Gynt suites 1 and 2
Vaughan Williams' The Lark Ascending
Bellini's oboe concerto

He's really amazing with Mozart and Haydn, though.


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

I quite like Marriner's recording with the Stuttgart RSO of Tchaikovsky's third and fourth orchestral suites. These works had a lightness which I think suited Marriner better than the more heavy duty romantic material.


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## Heck148 (Oct 27, 2016)

I have Marriner's B'bg Concerto with ASMF...very good, definitely not HIP, modern instruments used....he has Tuckwell play #2 on horn, rather than trumpet, which is interesting...good set overall, tho for #s 2 and 5 I go for "Music from Ravinia" disc with Levine/CSO members..Bud Herseth's delivery of the trumpet part of #2 is must hearing. He makes it sound easy....


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## WildThing (Feb 21, 2017)

I had his Mozart Requiem and a collection of Mozart's last 5 symphonies and found them completely dull and lacking in spark compared to other interpretations so I gave them away. That said, he has quite a few recordings that I really enjoy, and he seemed especially good with pastoral type works...his Dvorak serenades and Vaughan Williams Lark Ascending come to mind immediately...


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## premont (May 7, 2015)

Heck148 said:


> I have Marriner's B'bg Concerto with ASMF...very good, definitely not HIP, modern instruments used....he has Tuckwell play #2 on horn, rather than trumpet, which is interesting...good set overall, tho for #s 2 and 5 I go for "Music from Ravinia" disc with Levine/CSO members..Bud Herseth's delivery of the trumpet part of #2 is must hearing. He makes it sound easy....


I think Marriner's recordings of the Brandenburg concertos (he made three all in all) are very good, but better have been done (remember the Brandenburg concertos have been recorded about 150 times).


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

WildThing said:


> I had his Mozart Requiem and . . . and found [it]completely dull and lacking in spark compared to other interpretations so I gave them away.


That's funny; I'm about to do the same thing.

I'm partial to his recording of Faure's Requiem. Sylvia McNair's Pie Jesus is wonderful in how her voice floats over the orchestra.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

> Thankfully, the boxed sets never end. If you have been a follower of Marriner since the beginning, and you don't have many of his earliest recordings, you will rejoice in this set. Not only do we get all the original Argo CDs, but those made for the British ASV label (taken over by Decca) called The French Connection, and another The English Collection plus a bonus disc from L'Oiseau Lyre (also taken over by Decca) called "Recital" consisting of Concerti grossi by Corelli, Torelli, Locatelli, Albicastro, Handel, Avison, Manfredini, and Geminiani (recorded between 1961 and 1963. On top of all that, we get substantial cardboard inserts showing the original covers. All, of course, is performed by the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields (not, no dashes now!).
> 
> There's too much to list her as to what is contained in the boxed set, but some of the music is making its premiere CD appearance. We get Handel's Concerti grossi, Op. 3, Rossini String Sonatas, material by Stravinsky, including a Capriccio with John Ogdon, pianist. There's a gloriously recorded and performed Mendelssohn Octet coupled with a Bocchereini Cello Quintet. Mendelssohn's Concerto in E Major for Two Pianos* and the Piano Concerto in A Minor for Piano with John Ogdon and *Brenda Lucas along with the Symphony #12 for Strings. There's a disc devoted to all American music, Boyce's eight symphonies, a Handel Messiah (complete), von Weber's two symphonies, and on and on it goes.
> 
> ...


Wonderful set and said.


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## Melvin (Mar 25, 2011)

He is totally hip


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## Enthusiast (Mar 5, 2016)

Not at all HIP - for what that matters (not much) - and often rather indulgent to my ears. But his Handel Op. 6 set, which came quite early in his output, remains a favourite and makes most HIP sets of these key works (i.e. except for Harnoncourt's) sound trite. Perhaps that was down to the presence of Thurston Dart, though? Marriner did make some great records but, in general, I see him as a great populariser.


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## larold (Jul 20, 2017)

Marriner used modern instruments, modern tuning, moderate speeds and read scores in a way different from most people that still use period practice. His repertoire went way beyond what those people know, as well, from Renaissance to Mahler and Berg.


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## David Phillips (Jun 26, 2017)

Like Karajan, Marriner made a huge number of recordings, and also like Karajan he didn't make many bad ones.


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## Malx (Jun 18, 2017)

David Phillips said:


> Like Karajan, Marriner made a huge number of recordings, and also like Karajan he didn't make many bad ones.


Sadly in my opinion both Marriner and Karajan made many recordings that were little better than safe, unlikely to offend offerings.
To a listener new to classical they may sound great but with a bit more experience they can be mediocre compared to the best.
Having said that both conductors have produced some wonderful recordings. 
Just my thoughts.


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