Search - Schubert, Mendelssohn, Tchaikovsky :: Beecham: Symphony 3 / Symphony 4 / Nutcracker Ste

More Beecham recordings from the BBC archives.

John Austin | Kangaroo Ground, Australia | 07/27/2001

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I haven't seen a review of this 2000 release yet, so I shall provide my own perceptions which might be helpful to other browsers.Much archival material is being exhumed from the BBC's vaults and transferred to medium priced CDs in the "BBC Legends" series. Especially welcome are recordings of concerts and studio performances conducted by Sir Thomas Beecham (1879-1961). It was always claimed that, immaculate as were his many commercial recordings, Beecham achieved his best result at live concerts. A concert conducted by Beecham was certainly an exciting occasion, as I well remember.This CD provides an opportunity to put this claim to the test. I have compared Beecham's commercial recordings and his concert performances of the two symphonies heard on this CD. Yes, I believe there is more excitement in these 1958 concert performances. The work of the wind players in the Schubert Symphony is more exquisite also, and the string playing is wonderfully accomplished in the final movement of the Mendelssohn symphony. There are also the occasional ill-timed coughs from the audience to be heard in some of the quieter passages.The performance of the "Nutcracker Suite" heard here, with a spoken introduction by Beecham, derives not from a concert but from a BBC studio broadcast of December 1958. It certainly has more verve and colour than the recording Beecham made of it in the early 1950s."