MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2024
60,000 reviews
... and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here Acte Prealable Polish CDs
 

Presto Music CD retailer
 
Founder: Len Mullenger                                    Editor in Chief:John Quinn             


CD REVIEW

Some items
to consider

new MWI
Current reviews

old MWI
pre-2023 reviews

paid for
advertisements

Acte Prealable Polish recordings

Forgotten Recordings
Forgotten Recordings
All Forgotten Records Reviews

TROUBADISC
Troubadisc Weinberg- TROCD01450

All Troubadisc reviews


FOGHORN Classics

Alexandra-Quartet
Brahms String Quartets

All Foghorn Reviews


All HDTT reviews


Songs to Harp from
the Old and New World


all Nimbus reviews



all tudor reviews


Follow us on Twitter


Editorial Board
MusicWeb International
Founding Editor
   
Rob Barnett
Editor in Chief
John Quinn
Contributing Editor
Ralph Moore
Webmaster
   David Barker
Postmaster
Jonathan Woolf
MusicWeb Founder
   Len Mullenger

alternatively
CD: Crotchet AmazonUK

 

Ernest John MOERAN (1894-1950)
Sinfonietta (1944) [26:52]
Vincent d’INDY (1851-1931)
Jour d'été à la montagne
op.61 (1906) [31:43]
Lord BERNERS (1883-1950)
The Triumph of Neptune
(1926) [18:17]
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra (d'Indy)/Thomas Beecham
rec. Royal Albert Hall, RPS, 25 April 1947 (Moeran); Maida Vale Studio, 6 October 1951; Davis Theatre, Croydon, 10 November 1946. ADD
Somm Beecham Series – Volume 24.
SOMM BEECHAM24 [77:02]
Experience Classicsonline

Beecham takes infinite pains over this Moeran Sinfonietta. It feels slower than many but there is a sly smile about it and a more than usually Delian air about the Andante: try 7:43 onwards. Then again Beecham really hammers the pizzicato triple forte near the start of the Allegro risoluto. He speed-strokes and caresses the lyrically exuberant moments. At 5:07 in the finale he italicises those punched out chords more than any other performance. If coordination goes woolly and ragged the last three minutes it’s certain that Beecham unleashed the wild dogs to bring the house down.

The d’Indy Jour d'été à la montagne gives us three times of day in the Ardèche. It surely bears the impress of Debussy’s La Mer (1903-05) at least in concept and layout. It’s a powerfully atmospheric piece with a refulgent Wagnerian impressionism and the redolence of Franck in the final Soir movement. Beecham revels in this in a much more polished performance than is the case with the Moeran.

The Berners ballet suite - minus The Frozen Forest - is full of whooping élan, gawky balletic innocence, folk-sampler naivety and jaunty insouciance. Most memorable is the pointed Parisian trumpet solo in The Sailor’s Return which also sports the sobbingly boozy lachrymose Last Rose of Summer from bass Trevor Anthony.
 
These are all live performances. The sound is properly historical with a tendency to a ferocious treble, a sometimes whiskery disc surface, the occasionally suppressed cough and a hint of distortion at some of the climactic moments. The d’Indy is probably the cleanest in terms of a pure and polished treble but allowance must be made for a moment of wow near the start. In compensation, the vivid characterisation of all these performances reaches out and grips the listener.
 
Long may this series continue. We are fortunate indeed to have this series and I do hope that the Beecham Archive has many more tapes to yield up to this invaluable Somm series which as ever sports matchless notes by Graham Melville-Mason.
 
Rob Barnett
 

 


Advertising on
Musicweb


Donate and keep us afloat

 

New Releases

Naxos Classical
All Naxos reviews

Hyperion recordings
All Hyperion reviews

Foghorn recordings
All Foghorn reviews

Troubadisc recordings
All Troubadisc reviews



all Bridge reviews


all cpo reviews

Divine Art recordings
Click to see New Releases
Get 10% off using code musicweb10
All Divine Art reviews


All Eloquence reviews

Lyrita recordings
All Lyrita Reviews

 

Wyastone New Releases
Obtain 10% discount

Subscribe to our free weekly review listing

 

 


EXPLORE MUSICWEB INTERNATIONAL

Making a Donation to MusicWeb

Writing CD reviews for MWI

About MWI
Who we are, where we have come from and how we do it.

Site Map

How to find a review

How to find articles on MusicWeb
Listed in date order

Review Indexes
   By Label
      Select a label and all reviews are listed in Catalogue order
   By Masterwork
            Links from composer names (eg Sibelius) are to resource pages with links to the review indexes for the individual works as well as other resources.

Themed Review pages

Jazz reviews

 

Discographies
   Composer
      Composer surveys
   National
      Unique to MusicWeb -
a comprehensive listing of all LP and CD recordings of given works
.
Prepared by Michael Herman

The Collector’s Guide to Gramophone Company Record Labels 1898 - 1925
Howard Friedman

Book Reviews

Complete Books
We have a number of out of print complete books on-line

Interviews
With Composers, Conductors, Singers, Instumentalists and others
Includes those on the Seen and Heard site

Nostalgia

Nostalgia CD reviews

Records Of The Year
Each reviewer is given the opportunity to select the best of the releases

Monthly Best Buys
Recordings of the Month and Bargains of the Month

Comment
Arthur Butterworth Writes

An occasional column

Phil Scowcroft's Garlands
British Light Music articles

Classical blogs
A listing of Classical Music Blogs external to MusicWeb International

Reviewers Logs
What they have been listening to for pleasure

Announcements

 

Community
Bulletin Board

Give your opinions or seek answers

Reviewers
Past and present

Helpers invited!

Resources
How Did I Miss That?

Currently suspended but there are a lot there with sound clips


Composer Resources

British Composers

British Light Music Composers

Other composers

Film Music (Archive)
Film Music on the Web (Closed in December 2006)

Programme Notes
For concert organizers

External sites
British Music Society
The BBC Proms
Orchestra Sites
Recording Companies & Retailers
Online Music
Agents & Marketing
Publishers
Other links
Newsgroups
Web News sites etc

PotPourri
A pot-pourri of articles

MW Listening Room
MW Office

Advice to Windows Vista users  
Questionnaire    
Site History  
What they say about us
What we say about us!
Where to get help on the Internet
CD orders By Special Request
Graphics archive
Currency Converter
Dictionary
Magazines
Newsfeed  
Web Ring
Translation Service

Rules for potential reviewers :-)
Do Not Go Here!
April Fools




Return to Review Index

Untitled Document


Reviews from previous months
Join the mailing list and receive a hyperlinked weekly update on the discs reviewed. details
We welcome feedback on our reviews. Please use the Bulletin Board
Please paste in the first line of your comments the URL of the review to which you refer.