Great Conductors - Beecham - Naxos: 8110906 - CD or download

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There always was a unique alchemy between the art of Sir Thomas Beecham and the music of Frederick Delius, to be heard in every bar of this remarkable January 1938 recording of Appalachia.
It's... — Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010 More…

Catalogue No: 8110906
Label: Naxos
Series: Historical, Great Conductors
Length: 66 minutes

Usually despatched in 3 - 4 working days

Delius: Brigg Fair, an English Rhapsody

Work length13:48

$3.00

$3.85

Sir Thomas Beecham
Recorded: 11 December 1928 and 10 July 1929
Recording Venue: Portman Rooms, London

Delius: Koanga, Act II

Work length3:29

$1.00

$1.30

London Philharmonic Orchestra
Sir Thomas Beecham
Recorded: 11 February 1938
Recording Venue: Abbey Road Studio 1, London

La Calinda (Arr. E. Fenby)

Track length3:29

$1.00

$1.30

Delius: Hassan, Act V

Work length7:27

$2.00

$2.60

Jan van der Gucht, Royal Opera House Chorus, Covent Garden, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Thomas Beecham, Jan van der Gucht
Royal Opera House Chorus, Covent Garden, London Philharmonic Orchestra
Sir Thomas Beecham
Recorded: 28 June 1938
Recording Venue: Abbey Road Studio 1, London

Closing Scene. We take the Golden Road to Samarkand

Track length7:27

$2.00

$2.60

Delius: Irmelin Prelude

Work length4:16

$1.00

$1.30

London Philharmonic Orchestra
Sir Thomas Beecham
Recorded: 18 July 1938
Recording Venue: Abbey Road Studio 1, London

Delius: Appalachia (Variations on an old slave song)

Work length37:07

Album only

BBC Chorus, London Philharmonic Orchestra
Sir Thomas Beecham
Recorded: 6-7 and 31 January, 1938
Recording Venue: Abbey Road Studio 1, London

Appalachia (Variations on an Old Slave Song)

Track length37:07

Album only

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Reviews

2010

There always was a unique alchemy between the art of Sir Thomas Beecham and the music of Frederick Delius, to be heard in every bar of this remarkable January 1938 recording of Appalachia.
It's a performance of beaming dedication, wistful heartache and rapt wonder leaves the listener in no doubt about Sir Thomas's boundless love for a work that served as his introduction to the composer. (He later recalled how the 1907 London premiere under Fritz Cassirer left him 'startled and electrified'.) By July 1938 Beecham and the LPO had committed to disc the three remaining items that eventually made up The Delius Society's lavishly presented third and final volume of the composer's music issued by Columbia Records; suffice it to say, La Calinda skips along entrancingly here, while no true Delian could fail to respond to Beecham's ineffably poignant way with both the closing scene from Hassan and the lovely Irmelin Prelude.
Naxos's curtain-raiser, Brigg Fair, was recorded towards the end of the previous decade. Some seven months separated the two days required to produce a reading of unforgettable tenderness and bewitching poetry (the results of an even earlier session in July 1928 having been rejected altogether), although some will still hold a slight preference for the second of Sir Thomas's three versions (a gloriously intuitive display with the newly formed RPO from November 1946).
David Lennick's transfers have been admirably managed, Appalachia now sounding rather more open and full bodied than on a rival Dutton compilation. Throw in a lively and informative booklet-essay from Lyndon Jenkins, not to mention the absurdly low price-tag, and it should be abundantly clear that this is a selfrecommending issue.

Great Conductors - Beecham

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