Portsmouth Sinfonia: Toxic Clouds of Sound, and Not a Hosanna Too Soon

The Portsmouth Sinfonia - Hallelujah: The Portsmouth Sinfonia at the Royal Albert Hall

(1974, Transatlantic TRA 285 LP, out of print.)



You can Google/Wiki/Discog and read others' impressions for yourselves, but for my blood-spattered tenspot the Sinfonia are on par with, and certainly as important as, Xenakis, King Tubby, the Pistols, Big Mama Thornton, Cage, Ut, Ayler, Schimpfluch, Take That, etc. Hallelujah was their second release, one that highlighted the inadvertently comic but no less subversive nature of their work. Wonderful from crackpot intro to gargled conclusion.

--

01 Mr. Michael Bond's Address

02 From the Nutcracker Suite Op. 71a-March-Tchaikowsky

03 From the Karelia Suite, Op. 11-Intermezzo-Schubert

04 March Militaire in D Major-Schubert

05 Piano Concert No. 1 in B Minor, Op. 23- Tchaikowsky

06 Overture 1812-Tchaikowsky

07 William Tell Overture-Rossini

08 From the Messiah (Pt. 2)-Hallelujah Chorus-Handel (with the Portsmouth Sinfonia Choir)

--

Recorded at the Royal Albert Hall, London, May 28, 1974.



(Above, the Portsmouth Sinfonia at the RAH, with slowly circling demonic mob... Click both photos for larger images.)

--

(95.2 MB unpacked, ripped @ 320. I cleaned the vinyl as best I could; certain of the more noticeable pops were removed digitally.)

Here.

--

Cheers,

TS