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
BARGAIN OF THE MONTH


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
Crotchet   AmazonUK   AmazonUS

 

Jean SIBELIUS (1865-1957)
Symphony No. 7 in C major, Op.105 [20:23]
Tapiola, Op.112 [17:47]
The Oceanides, Op.73 [10:20]
Pelleas and Melisande Suite, Op.46 [27:33]
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra/Sir Thomas Beecham
rec. No. 1 Studio, Abbey Road, London, 19 Nov 1955, 25 Nov 1955 (Pelleas); 18-19 Dec 1955 (Oceanides); 21, 25 Nov 1955 (Symphony No. 7); 15, 17 Dec 1955 (Tapiola). ADD
EMI CLASSICS GREAT RECORDINGS OF THE CENTURY 5096922 [76:44]
Experience Classicsonline





A welcome reissue in EMI’s Great Recordings of the Century series. This compilation first appeared in 1990 as part of the old Beecham Edition and restored to circulation some of the conductor’s most enduring recordings from the 1950s, in remarkable early stereo. Beecham had performed the Pelleas music and Tapiola at Sibelius’s 90th birthday concert with the RPO in the Festival Hall at the time of making these recordings. The music could not help but be fresh in his and his orchestra’s collective minds. That concert is also available in its entirety on BBC Legends, for those wishing to contrast the commercial recordings with the live performances.

Now newly remastered, these vintage recordings sound fabulous. In the Pelleas and Melisande Suite sonorous strings in At the Castle Gate contrast with delicate woodwind playing elsewhere. The Death of Melisande is most affecting.

Beecham claimed Sibelius himself asked him to record The Oceanides. At the time this was the first version of the work to appear since Boult’s old BBC version in the 1930s; Sir Adrian himself set down another version with the LPO the following year. Although he never performed in concert, Beecham’s performance fully encompasses the work’s many facets, from the chattering woodwind of the opening to the tremendous climax towards the end.

It’s been customary to regard the performance of the Seventh Symphony as one of Beecham’s few Sibelius recordings that slightly miss the mark. It’s true that on a point-by-point comparison with the likes of Koussevitzky or Karajan, Beecham’s performance seems to operate at a lower level. However over the span of the work Sir Thomas’s cumulative control of tension, tempi and dynamics allows him to project the symphony as a single overarching structure, with the main points of tension and release arriving towards the end with the recapitulation.

The recording of Tapiola was not issued until after Beecham’s death, perhaps due to the lack of a suitable coupling. There can be no reservations at all about the quality of the performance; it is perhaps the finest on the disc and one of the great recordings of this monumental work on record. Beecham creates a mood of brooding intensity in the work’s opening pages which he maintains throughout until the storm section erupts in a fury. At the end, as in all good performances of Tapiola, we are left drained yet strangely cleansed by the power of the music.

Throughout this disc the performances are of the very highest standard, with Beecham’s accustomed sensitivity to phrasing and dynamics. Recordings have come up newly minted in these transfers, sounding richer and more spacious than ever. A Great Recording of the Century, beyond a doubt.

Ewan McCormick

 

EMI Great Recordings of the Century

 

 


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.