Frederick DELIUS (1862-1934)
Sir Thomas Beecham conducts Delius:
A Mass of Life (Eine Messe des
Lebens)
Rosina Raisbeck (sop)
Monica Sinclair (con)
Charles Craig (ten)
Bruce Boyce (bar)
London Philharmonic Choir/Frederick Jackson
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra/Sir Thomas Beecham
Recorded November 8th & 11th, December
8th, 10th, 12th & 13th 1952,
January 1st & 20th, April 10th and May
14th 1953, EMI Studio 1, Abbey Road, London.
Introductory talk by Sir Thomas Beecham on Delius and A Mass of
Life.
SONY CLASSICAL
SM2KK89432 [2CDs 41.18;
69.12]
Crotchet
AmazonUK AmazonUS
Here at long last, for the first time on CD, is surely one of the monuments
of the gramophone: Delius's Eine Messe des Lebens (A Mass of
Life), in the hands of his acknowledged supreme interpreter, Sir Thomas
Beecham. This recording, for far too long out of the catalogue, is actually
making its fourth appearance. Its initial release, in November 1953, was
on a lilac-coloured Columbia LP set, 33CX1079-80, with a booklet containing
the text in German and English (in a translation by William Wallace) and
incorporating notes by Eric Fenby. It then reappeared briefly on Fontana
CFL1005-6, with a memorable sunset-drenched cover and with the text, in German
only, and notes by Charles Burr now printed on the sleeves. For several years
it remained unavailable until CBS re-issued it in 1970 at bargain price in
the gate-fold LP set 61182-3. This time it was clothed in an unimaginative
black front cover, with the same notes and a bilingual text, but now with
John Bernhoff's English translation. The CD booklet contains the same notes
and text, with an introduction by Julian Haylock. (In this otherwise informative
essay two facts need to be refuted: The Walk to the Paradise Garden
did not come about at Beecham's request - it existed before he had
even heard a note of Delius - and Beecham was not involved in Fenby becoming
Delius's amanuensis.)
This famous recording was made over a year after a Festival of Britain
performance at the Royal Albert Hall on June 7th 1951. This concert
was notable for several reasons. It was the last of the ten performances
(all in England) that Sir Thomas was to give of A Mass of Life (to
give its more familiar title) which he had premièred as far back as
1908. It marked the first appearance in England of a young baritone announced
simply as 'Fischer-Dieskow' ('quite superb . . . of ringing nobility and
a remarkable range of colour through all registers' wrote The Times
critic). It was Beecham's only public performance of the work in German and,
as was his habit, he changed the order of the movements, bringing forward
the fourth movement of Part Two and placing it before the interval in an
attempt to balance the two uneven halves of the work. (No need for such audience
consideration here: on CD the movements are in the correct order, each 'half'
of the work occupying a single disc.) And last but not least, it was broadcast
by the BBC, and yet no recording of so important an occasion seems to exist,
either in official archives or in private hands. The other soloists on that
occasion were Sylvia Fisher, Monica Sinclair and David Lloyd.
When it came to the recording, which was spread over nearly seven months,
different soloists were used, apart for Monica Sinclair. Sylvia Fisher sang
in some of the early takes but, perhaps because of other engagements, her
place was taken by Rosina Raisbeck, and despite the great impression he had
made, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau was not - to our loss - to recreate on disc
(or it seems in the concert hall) the role of Zarathustra. His place was
taken instead by Bruce Boyce who proves more than equal to the task. He was
later to record Sea Drift with Beecham. When the CBS re-issue appeared
in October 1970, Felix Aprahamian, one of the tiny handful of people alive
today who actually met Delius, had this to say in The Gramophone:
'It is an open secret that a second recording of Delius's A Mass of Life
has been projected for some years, and that it is likely to be a fait
accompli within the next two years.' [This proved to be accurate: Sir
Charles Groves's recording appeared in March 1972.] 'All the more reason
to acquire the original Beecham recording while this chance is available.
I have no doubt that, when at last, it comes the new version will be clearer
and might even be better sung than this seventeen-year-old set. But', he
concluded, 'I have even less doubt that those who then discover this mighty
work will also want to have this earlier set, for it has more than a few
magical and unsurpassable moments both in the orchestral playing, solo singing
and general ensemble - and Beecham'.
These words still ring true today, even though there has since been yet another
recording, from Chandos under Richard Hickox. Groves' and especially Hickox's
recordings have strong points in their favour, even more so Del Mar's
'unofficial' BBC performance from Intaglio, but it is Beecham who ultimately
provides the most satisfying and most moving reading. Geoffrey Crankshaw,
in Records and Recordings, wrote in 1970 that 'the blazing conviction
and immaculate musicianship of Beecham's interpretation is sheer genius'.
If one had to isolate an example of this genius, one need only take the prelude
to part two.
On the Mountains, as it is called, is breathtakingly beautiful. The
SONY publicity for this CD actually lists 'Brain' with the soloists, and
while oddly enough his name can be found nowhere in either the booklet or
on the CD cover, playing offstage horn can surely be none other than Dennis
Brain, the RPO's then principal horn, and this CD set is worth buying for
that alone. Hickox treats this movement (4' 45") impressively as a study
in pianissimo playing, but his horns, placed in the far distance, become
lost in an aural mist. Groves brings greater clarity but he paces the movement
faster (3' 56"). Only Del Mar (5' 17") comes close to Beecham, and his recording
(BBC 1971, coupled with Groves' pioneer 1965 performance of the
Requiem, INCD 702-2) is the finest Mass in stereo and should
be snapped up whenever copies appear. Beecham (5' 20") takes longest of all
but at no moment is one aware of either time or slowness as one can be with
Hickox. Instead one is left in awe of the playing.
All the soloists sing with great authority and conviction, and as always
with Beecham, there is a wonderful richness - not thickness - of texture
in the orchestra owing to his skill at balancing in the recording studio
as well as in the concert hall. In the 'Lyre Song', the most intimate of
all the movements, the autumnal orchestral tapestry is subservient to the
soloist, yet the ear constantly delights in the changing timbres, picking
out details like the spread harp chord seven bars before the end and the
muted strings at the close dying away from ppp to pppp. It
is almost timeless: at moments bar lines might as well be non-existent. Utter
wizardry.
Beecham's use of expressive hairpins is a subject in itself but there are,
as one would expect, many touches in the performance that are not marked
in the score (does a magician reveal all his secrets ?). Two examples
in the fourth movement, part two: the ritardando in the fifth bar
after 108 as Beecham relishes the falling chromatic phrase, and the telling
diminuendo on the choir's last 'O Glück !' after 110, suggesting
perhaps that bliss is after all not so easily attained.
The two-CD set begins with a previously unissued seven-minute talk by Sir
Thomas on Delius and A Mass of Life. This is not the longer talk for
the BBC that was broadcast the evening before the Royal Albert Hall performance,
a generally unscripted talk which at one point Beecham illustrated himself
on the piano and which was issued in the World Records Delius-Beecham boxed
LP set SHB32. No indication is given as to the provenance of this talk or
whether, as one may fairly assume, it was recorded by Columbia and intended
either for issue on the LP release or for publicity purposes. The talk, in
all truth, does not tell us a great deal about Delius, rather more about
the speaker. It begins with a typical Beecham overstatement: 'During the
past 70 years no composer has aroused so much discussion as Frederick Delius
. . .' But it does allow us the pleasure of listening to Beecham's voice
and his very personal - and masterly - style of oratory.
A Mass of Life was recorded over a wide range of dates and this would
explain why the acoustic varies in places. For many years there was talk
of the master tapes being lost or damaged. Whatever the truth of this, Gary
Moore has achieved wonders in re-mastering this recording. Certainly one
feared that the opening chorus might have lost its bite with age. Not at
all. It still carries a terrific punch with weighty brass and Beecham setting
a cracking pace that none of the other recordings can quite match. The chorus
meets the challenge well, even if individual voices can be heard in places.
One small quibble concerning this re-issue is that there could have been
a little more breathing space between one or two movements: the 'Lyre Song',
for example, follows too hard on the close of the 'Arise' chorus. But make
no mistake: this is one of the greatest performances on record. No-one should
hesitate to snap it up and at the same time urge SONY to dust down and release
other Beecham treasures in their keeping.
Stephen Lloyd
See also review by Rob Barnett
