Johannes BRAHMS (1833-1897)
Symphony No.2 in D Op.73 (1877) [37:45]
Academic Festival Overture Op.80 (1880) [10:43]
Frederick DELIUS (1862 -1934)
North Country Sketches (1913-14) [24:25]
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra/Thomas Beecham
rec. Abbey Road, London 1949 (Delius), 1956 (Overture) and 1958 (Symphony)
PRISTINE AUDIO PASC263 [73:00]
All three performances here are studio recordings. The preferred version of
the Brahms Symphony is the 1958 stereo, rather than the pre-war 78 set. But
otherwise this is a Brahms-and-Delius disc that, whilst it offers no surprises
other than promoting unlikely disc bedfellows, does offer thoroughly sound
traversals in good sound.
There may be a hint of the lukewarm about that opening paragraph of the Symphony,
and if there is it relates to the solid, colour rather than explicitly architecture-conscious
reading of the symphony. Sometimes too much can be made of the pre-war and
post-war Beecham, not least in Mozart performances, where the former is accounted
‘good’ and the latter ‘erratic’. Nevertheless there
is more than smidgen of truth in that when it comes to this symphony. Certainly
there are many moments of affectionate moulding, eloquent lower string cantilena,
spirited and bronzed horn playing and the like. And equally, one finds that
this approach cements Beecham’s sense of the work as a lyric watercolour,
generously - indeed often affectionately - moulded. Nevertheless, though one
feels him bestirred in the finale in an almost galvanic, Vesuvian way, the
results do feel a little out of scale, somewhat forced, and at points unconvincing.
The Academic Festival Overture brings out Beecham’s caustic wit,
and once again the Baronet responds with unconcealed flair. Drama is never
far from the forefront of the matter.
An almost complete contrast is felt in the Delius North Country Sketches.
This is certainly amongst the composer’s less well performed works,
and consequently one’s interpretative parameters tend to be set early,
by his great, though not earliest champion, Beecham. There are four sketches
and they are ripely characterised. The suggestive wind sough is expertly realised
whilst there’s delicious animation in the third of the sketches, the
Dance movement. Beecham’s ear for balance, texture and colour - often
wrongly equated with an inability to construct symphonic form (the two qualities
are not contradictory) - finds rich reward in a piece such as this.
The Symphony has been issued on CD before; on EMI CDM 7632212 and the Delius
on Sony SMK89429, for example. This Pristine Audio has retained some tape
hiss, but at a much higher level - therefore less immediately audible - than
the Sony transfer.
Jonathan Woolf
Whilst it offers no surprises other than promoting unlikely disc bedfellows
it offers thoroughly sound traversals in good sound.