Overture:Renzi/In A Summer Garden/Symphony No.9

Fifty years after his death, do we give Beecham his due? The commercial recordings of around half a century have been supplemented over the past twenty odd years by an increasing number of live recordings from various sources. The most valuable of them have preserved performances of works de didn't otherwise record, ranging from the Berlioz Requiem, Les Troyens, and the Beethoven Missa Solemnis to works by Bax, Alwyn, Smetana, Moeran, and D'Indy, some in fairly dim recordings, but all of them revealing a very different Beecham from the perfectionist of the studio recordings. This very carefully planned disc suggests - as do others - that Beecham, one of the pioneers who showed just what the gramophone of the thirties could do with electrical recording and thereby an openly acknowledged inspiration for Karajan, was - like other great conductors, much more at home in the concert hall. The sound is mid-fifties mono, and npt in any way comparable with the LPs of the time, but it is honest and the dynamic contrasts are convincing. When a fortissimo arrives it is a proper fortissimo, and the is a fair distance between it and a pianissimo, but it will not be a blend of tone - more likely a rough brassy blare over a thumping timpani. But noise reduction hasn't distorted anything. And you can hear what is going on.

The items come from three quite separate concerts, a Festival Hall Wagner night with a long programme and the Walkurenritt as an encore, the Delius from the 1956 Edinburgh Festival, and the Schubert from another December 1955 Festival Hall evening - an all Schubert programme of both C major symphonies and an overture. The Delius, which is the best recorded, is very special indeed - possibly his finest surviving Delius performance, and certainly the best of his three recordings of "In a Summer Garden". This is the only work on the disc he recorded elsewhere. Even so, it's worth the price on its own, if you care about Delius, or Beecham. The Rienzi overture, which Amazon doesn't seem to be able to spell correctly just now, is the sort of work folk turn up their noses at. Beecham plays it briskly and without any attempt to make it sound profound. But the performance tells you something else about him - he had the theatre in his blood, and this barnstorming performance does superbly, and without condescension, what it is supposed to do - wake up the audience and get their full attention. At first the Schubert Ninth, which was one of his most celebrated interpretations, seems to function in pretty much the same way - big and rather crude fortissimos, and an unrelentingly lively and boisterous approach to the first movement, followed by a fairly jaunty beginning for the wanderer in the andante - which is a real andante, by the way. Then, suddenly, you realise that the jauntiness was a pose, and Schubert's - by now fully absorbed - Rossini studies are being put to ironic use. Of all people, Beecham (who would have been the first to scoff at the idea) sees the core of this movement in a light one can only call Mahlerian. Even the orchestral balance isn't all that far away from Mahler. You forget everything except the heartache. Even the occasional exposed imprecision doesn't beak the spell. After that, the scherzo and the finale need very careful listening, which you are quite happy to give them. You hear the work anew. This is a side of Beecham his contemporaries occasionally mentioned but doesn't show very often in his commercial discs - except in Delius. And it certainly raises a question about the easy dismissal of Beecham as a serious conductor encouraged by his erstwhile collaborator, Walter Legge among others.

Like many of the Somm, 'Beecham Collection' series, this issue is valuable in providing us with two works which, as far as I know, Beecham never recorded commercially; Wagner's 'Rienzi' Overture, and Schubert's 'Great' C major Symphony. And although Beecham recorded Delius's 'In A Summer Garden', this 'live' recording from the 1956 Edinburgh Festival, easily surpasses the commercial recordings, both for its superb playing, especially from the RPO's woodwind section, and the greater expressivity and subtlety of Beecham's conducting. The Rienzi overture is a thouroughly theatrical performance which, although having little of the depth or drama of performances from Klemperer or Toscanini, is hugely enjoyable in its own right. But it is the Schubert symphony ( from a 'live' broadcast from the Festival Hall London in December 1955) that is of particular importance as it represents a major 'classical' symphony and will introduce Beecham's interpretation of for the first time to many listeners. I can well remember being told by people who had heard Beecham conduct the Schubert symphony in concert, that it was a very special experience; that Beecham brought out the 'vastness' of Schubert's last symphonic statement. So I was especially looking forward to hearing this Beecham speciality.

The introduction, with beautifully phrased horn playing, and subtle rubato, promised well. The transition into the main Allegro ma non troppo, was also well managed. But the Allegro itself, although projected with plenty of brio and strenghth, I found to be too thumpy, a little bashed out so to speak. The G major lyrical second subject was well contrasted, with lovely woodwind playing, but by the time we reach the crashing ostinato chords of the development section, Beecham seems to have run out of steam thus depriving the extended coda its sense of climactic release. Also Beecham adds some specious trombone figurations which this movement/symphony does not need, and which sound merely contrived. The A minor Andante again begins very well at a true andante pace, the tutti march-like sforzato interjections arresting and rhtymically charged with power and drama. But later in the movement, before the great A minor climax, the same march-like chords were not completely together, thus reducing the sustained drama of the movement. In fact, and throughout the performance there are many instances of quite untidy ensemble. The A minor climax itself is dramatically convincing with a beautiful transition to the contrasting lyrical A major on celli.

The third movement Allegro vivace Scherzo, with its sharp rhythmic contrasts, I would have thought made for Beecham. But in this performance every thing seems peculiarly understated, sounding more like a rehearsal run-through! There is none of the pulsating rhythmic verve here found in performances from Toscanini and Monteux. The bucolic trio, which really sings and yodels with full throat for Toscanini, sounds distinctly restrained and under-voiced here. Also I found Beecham's habit of ramming final cadences home with a crescendo/sforzato effect mannered; probably very exciting in the 'live' event, but tiresome on repeated hearings.

In the great finale Beecham prioritises dramatic excitement, which must have been effective in the 'live' performance, but now sounds rather shallow and contrived, underplaying much of the darker and 'terrifying'tone which Tovey found in this movement. Klemperer, in particular, was absolutely stoically attuned to this darker aspect. Also, with Beecham, the whole structure of the movement does not cohere as it should, again Klemperer outclasses Beecham here. However, Beechams 'hell for leather' approach attaines a 'white heat' in the coda, which, in itself, is worth hearing, despite, again, much messy ensemble.

Beecham admirers, and there are many of them, will find this issue invaluable, and indeed, as I hope I have made clear, there is much to admire here. But in general, and on the evidence of this performance, Beecham lacks the overal sense of symphonic integrity,so essential to this work, and so popwerfully projected by conductors as diverse as Toscanini, Klemperer, Monteux, van Beinum and more recently Harnoncourt. The mono sound is rather restricted in dynamic range at times , but it shouldn't seriously detract from an appreciation of Beechams conducting skills.