Sir Thomas Beecham - English Music
Frederick DELIUS (1862-1934)
CD 1 [73:53]
Over the Hills and Far Away [12:57]
Sleigh Ride [5:30]
Brigg Fair [15:42]
Florida Suite [35:13]
Marche Caprice [4:00]
CD 2 [74:17]
Dance Rhapsody No. 2 [7:40]
Summer Evening [6:22]
On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring [7:04]
Summer Night on the River [6:37]
A Song before Sunrise [6:07]
Fennimore and Gerda - Intermezzo [5:11]
Irmelin Prelude [5:03]
Songs of Sunset [29:25]
CD 3 [72:42]
Dance Rhapsody No. 1 [12:10]
Violin Concerto [23:24]
The Song of the High Hills [24:30]
Paa Vidderne (On the Heights) [12:19]
CD 4 [63:25]
A Village Romeo and Juliet - Scenes 1-4 [63:25]
CD 5 [60:54]
A Village Romeo and Juliet - Scenes 5-6 [37:53]
Sea Drift [23:01]
CD 6 [79:56]
Edward GERMAN (1862-1936)
Gypsy Suite (Valse Mélancolique (Lonely Life); Allegro di molto (The
Dance); Menuetto (Love Duet); Tarantella (The Revel)) [15:36]
Granville BANTOCK (1868-1946)
Fifine at the Fair [32:57] Jack Brymer (clarinet)
Arnold BAX (1883-1953)
The Garden of Fand [16:44]
Lord BERNERS (1883-1950) The Triumph of Neptune (Schottische;
Hornpipe; Polka (The Sailor's Return) (Robert Alva (baritone)); Harlequinade;
Dance of the Fairy Princess; Sunday morning (Intermezzo); Apotheosis of Neptune)
[14:08]
John Cameron (baritone), Maureen Forrester (contralto) (Sunset); Jean Pougnet
(violin) (concerto); David McCallum (violin) (Dance Rhapsody No. 1); Freda
Hart (soprano), Leslie Jones (tenor) (Hills); Gordon Clinton (baritone) (Sea
Drift); Dennis Dowling (Manz), Frederick Sharp (Marti), Margaret Ritchie (Sali
- as a child), René Soames (Sali), Dorothy Bond (Vreli - as a child),
Lorely Dyer (Vreli), Gordon Clinton (The Dark Fiddler) (A Village Romeo and
Juliet)
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra/Sir Thomas Beecham
rec. 1946-57. stereo/mono. ADD
EMI CLASSICS 9099152 [6 CDs: 73:53 + 74:17 + 72:42 + 63:25
+ 60:54 + 79:56]
Although this set is titled Sir Thomas Beecham - English Music it pretty
much boils down to Beecham’s Delius plus one disc of music by other
English composers. It’s one of a Beecham series issued by EMI Classics
in 2011 - marking fifty years since Beecham’s death. The others are:-
Sir Thomas Beecham conducts French Music (6 CD set 9099322)
Sir Thomas Beecham: The Classical Tradition Mozart/Haydn (10 CD set 9099462)
Sir Thomas Beecham: The Great Communicator (4 CD set 9099642)
Sir Thomas Beecham: The Later Tradition (8 CD set 9186112)
Beecham’s Delius for many years effectively slammed the door on Delius
forays by other conductors. It may have done some disservice to the propagation
of Delius’s music placing too much fame on the shoulders of one man
- not that the testimonials were not merited. Few composers’ reputations
have been so exclusively harnessed to one conductor. When Beecham died in
1961 his Delius recordings lived on and continuing their spell also served
to discourage others. Oh, there are exceptions in the shape, for instance,
of Barbirolli, Sargent and Ormandy but nothing of a similar scale or depth.
Many of the Beecham-Delius discs inhabited the catalogue for years - in fact
often without a moment’s absence and continuing to hold premium price.
Of the present discs only CDs 1 and 2 are in stereo and many of the recordings
there fall into the category of ubiquitous presence - almost as immanent as
the Barbirolli/Baker/Dupré Elgar Sea Pictures-Cello Concerto LP. CDs
3-5 represent the Delius EMI mono years. The original recordings made in 1946-52
had only a fleeting presence in the catalogue and the same goes for the CD
reissues. A Village Romeo and Juliet, the Pougnet Violin Concerto and
the 1946 Song of the High Hills had brief moments in the sun both as
LPs and as CD reissues. The Over the Hills, Marche Caprice,
and last three movements of the Florida Suite and Songs of Sunset
have been newly re-mastered this year for this box.
Many of the Delius recordings here - especially the stereo ones on CDs 1 and
2 - are very well known and need little comment. Sleigh Ride and Florida
Suite are as magical, as beguiling and as swooningly catchy as ever. Brigg
Fair is superbly tracked into 23 segments for those who want to study
the score or recording or bathe in the Beecham heat close-up and repeatedly
or to immerse in favourite episodes. The shimmer and grateful song of the
Florida Suite finale (At Night)is remarkably Tchaikovskian
as is the Marche Caprice. The Dance Rhapsody No. 2 is captured
in lovely stereo and accommodates an acres-wide dynamic range - very satisfying.
The pacing of On Hearing the First Cuckoo and the heat-haze evoked
are magically well pitched. The same goes for the caramel halo around the
singing of the Beecham Choral Society in Songs of Sunset. I have no
complaints about them or about John Cameron but Maureen Forester is excessively
plumy. She also seems ill at ease with the way the Dowson words lie across
Delius’s music. Overall though this is glorious music-making.
The five movements of Dance Rhapsody No. 1 include some trippingly
spun oboe invention - pure distilled Beecham magic. David McCallum’s
solo violin lords it over the orchestra in the molto adagio finale.
This ushers us nicely into Pougnet’s reading of the Violin Concerto.
Pougnet is not temperamentally well suited to this poetically instinctive
music. Compare his reading with the Sammons
(Naxos) and Ralph Holmes (Unicorn DKPCD9040 - past time that Fenby series
was licensed to Alto); not to mention that by Tasmin
Little. There are certainly more romantic approaches. Things go more naturally
with the urgent ebb and ecstatic flow of The Song of the High Hills
- among my favourite Delius works. That’s even more so in this magnificent
version. The violins are specially attentive and swooning in The wide far
distance section with the choir melting imperceptibly into focus and out.
Great Delius playing. Paa Vidderne is more obvious and less refined.
It has a tendency towards bombast in the Strauss way though it does have its
moments and some of them are heatedly Tchaikovskian. This rare piece with
other Norwegian Delius pieces can be heard in modern sound on ClassicO (review
review
review).
A Village Romeo and Juliet is Delius’s most famous and successful
opera - a new production is due in November 2011 at Covent Garden and was
to have been conducted by the late Sir Charles Mackerras. Beecham’s
herculean and quixotic enterprise in bringing the opera to commercial shellac
is remarkable. Think how big the box of 78s would have been. It came to fruition
in EMI’s Abbey Road studios in 1948 with sessions there sandwiched between
BBC sessions for a broadcast which has since been issued by Somm.
It is good to hear the famous Walk in its correct dramatic place in
the drama even if it is momentarily disfigured by a patch of surface scuff.
We are back with emotional mastery for Beecham’s 1951 Sea Drift.
The utter rapture and fierce joy of the choir in Shine! Shine! Shine!
is a little too much for the matrices of the time but that distortion comes
and goes almost before you notice and is part of the experience. The recording
captures a myriad details in this ecstatic immersion of mournful abandon.
This was first issued on CD as part of EMI’s Beecham Edition in 1992
on CMS 7 64386 2 which is exactly the same as discs 4 and 5 of this set though
the original has the advantage of 20 page booklet with a synopsis and the
sing words reproduced; something you have to do without if you go for this
six CD set. Before that it was issued in the 1970s as part of a World Records
Club boxed set of LPs.
The last disc, playing at 80 minutes - as near as damn it - moves us away
from Delius. I do not recall the German Gypsy Suite ever being issued
before - certainly the booklet declares a 2011 re-mastering. The four movements
are the bohemian equivalent of orchestral suites by Charpentier or Glazunov.
We’re talking about genre postcard miniatures. Bantock’s Fifine
at the Fair is an amply proportioned and lavish piece of late-romantic
tone-poemry. The piece clearly responds to a recording technology that can
accommodate the was of Bantock’s voluptuous handling of the orchestra
so you may favour the Handley with the same orchestra as Beecham - part of
the Hyperion
Bantock project. It’s attractive certainly, expansively indulgent and
lavishly melodic but not totally compelling overall. If only he had recorded
The Witch of Atlas or Holbrooke’s Queen Mab. On the other
hand Beecham’s 1947 Fand has a sharper imaginative profile and
an impetuous urgency. It’s that urgency and virile pulse that marks
it out from another recording from the next decade - the one played by the
Hallé under Barbirolli (Dutton).
I prefer the Barbirolli because I like a gentler pace than Beecham’s.
Nevertheless the Beecham is colourful and very grown-up. Beecham clearly had
an affinity with Berners’ Triumph of Neptune because he recorded
movements from the suite not only for EMI but also for CBS
in the early 1950s. The music is polished but has a satirical kick which reminds
me of Walton’s Façade. Were Berners and Beecham poking
fun at RVW and perhaps Grainger in the final Apotheosis, I wonder?
This is a bargain price box so you are not going to get the sung words printed.
You do however get full discographical details as well as a fresh essay by
Lyndon Jenkins.
With Beecham’s Delius do not forget the extensive recordings he made
for CBS
in the early 1950s and years before that for EMI; the latter now on Naxos.
The CBS is invaluable as it featuresA Mass of Life and other things
including a generous slice of the Hassan music which were never part
of Beecham’s EMI project.
There were so many “what might have beens” for EMI and Delius.
Imagine if we could also have had Beecham-directed versions of the Requiem,
Double Concerto and Cello Concerto. The Requiem was finally done by
EMI in the 1960s by Meredith
Davies. The Double Concerto first saw the light of day on record circa
1967 due to the funding of the cellist Gerard Warburg who with Raymond Cohen
and Norman Del Mar conducting the RPO recorded the piece in a doughty and
poetically potent reading. This was issued on a rare Pye Golden Guinea Collector
Series LP (GGC4073). This was reissued in early days of the CD on PRT PVCD8372.
It was followed by a low temperature outing from Menuhin and Tortelier and
much later and with more apt atmosphere by Tasmin Little and Raphael Wallfisch
on EMI. When EMI finally got around to the Mass it fell, in 1972, to
Liverpool and Charles Groves. This is being reissued by EMI very soon but
first came out on CD in 1992 (CMS 7 64218 2. Norman Del Mar - a Beecham protégé
- also had the Mass on CD. That was taken from a fervent, smouldering and
ecstatically blazing FM broadcast issued by Intaglio in 1991 (INCD 702-2).
It’s probably the best version I have heard and that includes Hickox
on Chandos.
This Beecham set is in short an invaluable and compact addition to your shelves.
The problem may be duplication with previous reissues of these recordings.
If you can live with that then do not hold back. A treasury of Beecham’s
Delius and the music of other Brits in excellent stereo in the case of CDs
1, 2 and 6 and in good though sometimes distressed mono.
A treasury of Beecham’s EMI English music recordings including those
precious stereo sessions.
Rob Barnett
A treasury of Beecham’s EMI English music recordings including those
precious stereo sessions.
TRACKLISTING for DELIUS WORKS
Disc 1
01 Over the Hills and Far Away (ed. Beecham) (1960 Di (Frederick Delius) -
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra/Sir Thomas Beecham
02 Sleigh ride (Winter night) (2001 Digital Remaster) (Frederick Delius) -
Sir Thomas Beecham/Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
03 Introduction (Slow. Pastoral): Brigg Fair (Frederick Delius) - Sir Thomas
Beecham/Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
04 I. Theme (with easy movement): Brigg Fair (Frederick Delius) - Sir Thomas
Beecham/Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
05 Variation 1: Brigg Fair (Frederick Delius) - Sir Thomas Beecham/Royal Philharmonic
Orchestra
06 Variation 2: Brigg Fair (Frederick Delius) - Sir Thomas Beecham/Royal Philharmonic
Orchestra
07 Variation 3: Brigg Fair (Frederick Delius) - Sir Thomas Beecham/Royal Philharmonic
Orchestra
08 Variation 4: Brigg Fair (Frederick Delius) - Sir Thomas Beecham/Royal Philharmonic
Orchestra
09 Variation 5: Brigg Fair (Frederick Delius) - Sir Thomas Beecham/Royal Philharmonic
Orchestra
10 Variation 6: Brigg Fair (Frederick Delius) - Sir Thomas Beecham/Royal Philharmonic
Orchestra
11 II. Interlude (Slow and very quietly): Brigg Fa (Frederick Delius) - Sir
Thomas Beecham/Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
12 III. Variation 7 (Rather quicker but not hurried (Frederick Delius) - Sir
Thomas Beecham/Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
13 Variation 8: Brigg Fair (Frederick Delius) - Sir Thomas Beecham/Royal Philharmonic
Orchestra
14 Variation 9 (With easy movement): Brigg Fair (Frederick Delius) - Sir Thomas
Beecham/Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
15 Variation 10: Brigg Fair (Frederick Delius) - Sir Thomas Beecham/Royal
Philharmonic Orchestra
16 Variation 11 (Slow. With solemnity): Brigg Fair (Frederick Delius) - Sir
Thomas Beecham/Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
17 Variation 12 (Maestoso): Brigg Fair (Frederick Delius) - Sir Thomas Beecham/Royal
Philharmonic Orchestra
18 Transition: Brigg Fair (Frederick Delius) - Sir Thomas Beecham/Royal Philharmonic
Orchestra
19 IV. Variation 13 (Gaily): Brigg Fair (Frederick Delius) - Sir Thomas Beecham/Royal
Philharmonic Orchestra
20 Variation 14: Brigg Fair (Frederick Delius) - Sir Thomas Beecham/Royal
Philharmonic Orchestra
21 Variation 15: Brigg Fair (Frederick Delius) - Sir Thomas Beecham/Royal
Philharmonic Orchestra
22 Variation 16: Brigg Fair (Frederick Delius) - Sir Thomas Beecham/Royal
Philharmonic Orchestra
23 Transition (Rather quicker): Brigg Fair (Frederick Delius) - Sir Thomas
Beecham/Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
24 Variation 17 (Rather slower. Very broadly): Brig (Frederick Delius) - Sir
Thomas Beecham/Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
25 Coda (Very quietly): Brigg Fair (Frederick Delius) - Sir Thomas Beecham/Royal
Philharmonic Orchestra
26 I. Daybreak - Dance from Florida Suite RTVI/1 ( (Frederick Delius) - Sir
Thomas Beecham/Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
27 II. By the River (Andantino): Florida Suite (re (Frederick Delius) - Royal
Philharmonic Orchestra/Sir Thomas Beecham
28 III. Sunset (Moderato) - Danza (Allegretto): Flo (Frederick Delius) - Royal
Philharmonic Orchestra/Sir Thomas Beecham
29 IV. At Night (Andante moderato): Florida Suite (r (Frederick Delius) -
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra/Sir Thomas Beecham
30 Marche-caprice (1987 Digital Remaster) (Frederick Delius) - Royal Philharmonic
Orchestra/Sir Thomas Beecham
Disc 2
01 A Dance Rhapsody No. 2 (2001 Digital Remaster) (Frederick Delius) - Royal
Philharmonic Orchestra/Sir Thomas Beecham
02 Summer Evening (2001 Digital Remaster) (Frederick Delius/Sir Thomas Beecham)
- Sir Thomas Beecham/Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
03 On hearing the first cuckoo in Spring (2001 Digital Remaster) (Frederick
Delius) - Royal Philharmonic Orchestra/Sir Thomas Beecham
04 Summer Night on the River (2001 Digital Remaster) (Frederick Delius) -
Sir Thomas Beecham/Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
05 A Song before sunrise (2001 Digital Remaster) (Frederick Delius) - Royal
Philharmonic Orchestra/Sir Thomas Beecham
06 Intermezzo from Fennimore and Gerda (2001 Digital (Frederick Delius/Eric
Fenby) - Sir Thomas Beecham/Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
07 Irmelin Prelude (2001 Digital Remaster) (Frederick Delius) - Sir Thomas
Beecham/Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
08 A song of the setting sun! (Quietly): Songs of Su (Frederick Delius/Ernest
Dowson) - Maureen Forrester/John Cameron/Beecham Choral Soci
09 Cease smiling, dear! (With easy movement).: Songs (Frederick Delius/Ernest
Dowson) - Maureen Forrester/John Cameron/Beecham Choral Society
10 Pale amber sunlight falls (Slow).: Songs of Sunse (Frederick Delius/Ernest
Dowson) - Maureen Forrester/John Cameron/Beecham Choral Society
11 Exceeding sorrow consumeth my sad heart! (Frederick Delius/Ernest Dowson)
- Maureen Forrester/John Cameron/Beecham Choral Society
12 By the sad waters of separation (Frederick Delius/Ernest Dowson) - Maureen
Forrester/John Cameron/Beecham Choral Society
13 See how the trees and the osiers lithe (Freshly). (Frederick Delius/Ernest
Dowson) - Maureen Forrester/John Cameron/Beecham Choral Society
14 I was not sorrowful (Frederick Delius/Ernest Dowson) - Maureen Forrester/John
Cameron/Beecham Choral Society
15 They are not long, the weeping and the laughter (Frederick Delius/Ernest
Dowson) - Maureen Forrester/John Cameron/Beecham Choral Society
Disc 3
01 Lento -: A Dance Rhapsody No. 1 (1992 Digital Remaster (Frederick Delius)
- Royal Philharmonic Orchestra/Sir Thomas Beecham
02 Comodo -: A Dance Rhapsody No. 1 (1992 Digital Remaster (Frederick Delius)
- Royal Philharmonic Orchestra/Sir Thomas Beecham
03 Vivo -: A Dance Rhapsody No. 1 (1992 Digital Remaster (Frederick Delius)
- Royal Philharmonic Orchestra/Sir Thomas Beecham
04 Più lento tranquillo -: A Dance Rhapsody No. 1 (1 (Frederick Delius)
- Royal Philharmonic Orchestra/Sir Thomas Beecham
05 Molto adagio: A Dance Rhapsody No. 1 (1992 Digital remaster (Frederick
Delius) - Royal Philharmonic Orchestra/Sir Thomas Beecham
06 With moderate tempo -: Violin Concerto (1992 Digital remaster (Frederick
Delius) - Jean Pougnet/Royal Philharmonic Orchestra/Sir Thom
07 Slower -: Violin Concerto (1992 Digital Remaster) (Frederick Delius) -
Jean Pougnet/Royal Philharmonic Orchestra/Sir Thomas Beecham
08 Tempo I - Allegretto - Più moderato: Violin Conce (Frederick Delius)
- Jean Pougnet/Royal Philharmonic Orchestra/Sir Thomas Beecham
09 With quiet easy movement - Tranquillo -: The Song (Frederick Delius) -
Freda Hart/Leslie Jones/Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
10 Very slow (The wide, far distance - The great solitudes) (Frederick Delius)
- Freda Hart/Leslie Jones/Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
11 In tempo -: The Song of the High Hills (Frederick Delius) - Freda Hart/Leslie
Jones/Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
12 Very quietly - Tempo I: The Song of the High Hills (Frederick Delius) -
Freda Hart/Leslie Jones/Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
13 Paa Vidderne (On the Heights) (1992 Digital Remaster (Frederick Delius)
- Sir Thomas Beecham
Disc 4
01 SCENE 1 - September. A piece of land on a hill: A (Frederick Delius)
02 SCENE 2 - Six years later. Outside Marti's house: (Frederick Delius)
03 SCENE 3 - The Wildland: A Village Romeo and Julie (Frederick Delius)
04 SCENE 4 - Interior of Mart's house (part 1): A Vi (Frederick Delius)
05 The dream of Sali and Vrenchen (Wedding Scene): A (Frederick Delius)
Disc 5
01 SCENE 5 - The Fair: A Village Romeo and Juliet (1 (Frederick Delius)
02 The Walk to the Paradise Garden: A Village Romeo (Frederick Delius)
03 SCENE 6 - The Paradise Garden: A Village Romeo an (Frederick Delius)
04 Once Paumanok -: Sea Drift (Frederick Delius) - Gordon Clinton/Sir Thomas
Beecham
05 Shine! shine! shine! -: Sea Drift (Frederick Delius) - Gordon Clinton/Sir
Thomas Beecham
06 Till of a sudden -: Sea Drift (Frederick Delius) - Gordon Clinton/Sir Thomas
Beecham
07 Blow! blow! blow!: Sea Drift (Frederick Delius) - Gordon Clinton/Sir Thomas
Beecham
08 Yes my brother I know -: Sea Drift (Frederick Delius) - Gordon Clinton/Sir
Thomas Beecham
09 O rising stars! -: Sea Drift (Frederick Delius) - Gordon Clinton/Sir Thomas
Beecham
10 O reckless despairing carols -: Sea Drift (Frederick Delius) - Gordon Clinton/Sir
Thomas Beecham
11 O past! O happy life: Sea Drift (Frederick Delius) - Gordon Clinton/Sir
Thomas Beecham