From: rtut@troi.cc.rochester.edu (Raymond Tuttle)
Newsgroups: rec.music.classical
Subject: Sir Thomas Beecham on EMI - more reviews
Date: 24 Jan 93 19:52:20 GMT
Article-I.D.: galileo.1993Jan24.195220.25530
Organization: University of Rochester (Rochester, NY)

Sir Thomas Beecham did not appear to enjoy making records, even
asking "At what time do we terminate this melancholy occasion?"
during one recording session.  Even so, it is hard to take his words at
face value when the results of these "melancholy occasions" were so
musical and enjoyable for the orchestra and for the record-buying
public alike. 

EMI Classics' Beecham discography is a bit chaotic these days, with
reissues coming and going as frequently as trains in Charing Cross
Station.  Recently, several more titles have come out under the current
moniker of "The Beecham Edition," and who can tell how long these
reorganizations of Beecham's recordings with the Royal Philharmonic
Orchestra will continue? 

For example, EMI Classics CDM 7 64385 2 contains a sturdy
performance of Beethoven's Mass in C, Op. 86 (with soloists Jennifer
Vyvyan, Monica Sinclair, Richard Lewis, and Marian Nowakowski) that
appears to be new to CD, coupled with the incidental music to "The
Ruins of Athens," which used to be coupled to Beecham's recording of
the Symphony No. 7, now (annoyingly) out of print.  At any rate,
Beecham's recording of the elusive Mass remains the one to get, since
this is one work that the competition tends to kill with an excess of
perceived kindess, and the incidental music remains intensely
pleasurable, not least for Beecham's jaunty touch with the famous
"Turkish March". 

Beecham's Haydn never should be out of the catalogue, but its history on
CD has been very spotty, with a few of the symphonies appearing on the
Classics for Pleasure label, which isn't easy to get in the United States
anyway.  EMI now has set matters right with two multi-disc sets: CMS
7 64389 2 contains Symphonies Nos. 93-98, and CMS 7 64066 2
contains Nos. 99-104. 

Beecham ridiculed purists, in his own words, "a breed that has sprung
up recently," and there is much in his Haydn (particularly phrasing and
dynamics) that will annoy those who take recordings by The Hanover
Band as the gospel truth and not to be deviated from.  But who cares
about them?  It is difficult to resist the masculinity of these
performances -- they are firm but never bullying and tender but never
effete.  Actually, I prefer Bernstein's Haydn, but for those who want a
rest from or do not enjoy his more pungent recordings, there is no
gainsaying Beecham's attractions. 

I don't want to know the person who hates Haydn's music, but I could
understand (and feel sorry for) someone who hasn't quite gotten a
handle on Delius yet.  Two years ago Argo issued a somewhat
unsatisfactory recording of his opera "A Village Romeo and Juliet"
conducted by Sir Charles Mackerras.  Beecham's 1948 recording (CMS 7
64386 2, 2 discs) of this work has  problems too (largely the clotted
recording quality and the shrill voices of some of the singers), but it
does have one thing that Mackerras' recording drastically lacks:
atmosphere.  Without it, this tone poem with voices can be
interminable.  No libretto, but there is a detailed summary by Delius'
amanuensis Eric Fenby. 

In this reissue, it is coupled with Delius' "Sea Drift" in a recording
made in 1951 and never commercially available until now.  Beecham's
chosen baritone in this work was Gordon Clinton (who also sings The
Dark Fiddler in the opera), and I find it hard to understand why Beecham
was such a strong advocate for this young man whose vocal range was
narrow and whose tone could pass from beautiful to constricted within
just a couple of notes.  Beecham was to re-record this work in 1954
with baritone Bruce Boyce (now available on a SONY Portrait CD) and I
find that later recording preferable. 

Finally, a fascinating disc called "Beecham in Rehearsal" presents the
conductor at several of his recording sessions drilling the orchestra (a
little) and entertaining its members with all manner of interesting,
amusing stories, and cajoling raillery (CDM 7 64465).  We can hear
Beecham's ambivalent feelings about the recording process quite
clearly on this disc, which also contains a tantalizing excerpt from a
session for a 1951 recording of Beethoven's Symphony No. 5 which
seems to have not come to fruition. 

The sound on these discs varies from good (the Beethoven, in stereo) to
the merely tolerable (the Delius opera).  All of these recordings are
available at mid-price, and contain  notes that will be of more interest
to fans of Beecham than they will be to people who just want the
music. 




--
****************************************   Raymond S. Tuttle
"Dunkel ist das Leben, ist der Tod,"       University of Rochester
but it's nothing to get depressed about!   (still with his two little 
****************************************   white mice).
Newsgroups: rec.music.classical