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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase
This set offers incredible value but more importantly it contains some classic performances including some incredibly restored 78's. I especially rate 'Ein Heldenleben' and Liszt's 'Faust Symphony'-old favourites on vinyl!
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
Do not be put off from buying this great box set from reading Allan Blonde's review.
The quality is excellent, even though the recordings date back more than 50 years. It is a really good purchase, 8 cds at an attractive price.
The quality is excellent, even though the recordings date back more than 50 years. It is a really good purchase, 8 cds at an attractive price.
Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase
I just wanted to counter Allan Blonde's comments on the sound of these CDs which, in some of these recordings at least, seems to me to be rather cleaner and clearer than previous CD issues in the UK. I too have loved some of these performances for many years and still own some of them on LP. It seemed to me that some of the earlier CD reissues (of the Schubert symphonies for example) were more inclined to be presented with an 'analogue' sound, (which was actually quite a relief after some early digital remasters of the 1980's, from both EMI and other companies, which were often rather clinically harsh in tone). The early remasters and transfers of these Beecham recordings are much more enjoyable, and indeed EMI have chosen to retain all of the fine remasters from the late 1980's and early 1990's in the reissues contained within this 2011 set, rather than undertake new digital remastering.
However, these 2011 transfers, for example of the Schubert symphonies, are quite significantly cleaner and clearer in sound than those of the 1989 CD transfers with which I have been able to make a direct comparison. This isn't to be confused with harshness or an emphasis on treble at the expense of bass. Indeed the bass on the 2011 transfer of the Schubert is actually fuller than in the previous transfer of the 1989 remastering. I will hold on to that 1989 transfer in case I ever want to go back to that earlier 'analogue' sound, with its nostalgic warmth of sound (and subsequent loss of detail), but I can see myself often returning to listen to the 2011 transfer too, for example to hear the wonderful, cleanly reproduced, woodwind playing - such a strength of the Royal Philharmonic in Beecham's day. For more examples of this, do try to hear the joyous performance of the Beethoven 7th - so well reproduced in a recording which is now over fifty years old. Likewise the almost sixty five year old 1948 recording of Don Quixote with Tortelier is both astonishingly clean and full in tone. Here it is clear why EMI have sensibly left the 1989 transfers to speak for themselves.
If indeed the EMI Japan issues are such an improvement over these current UK releases as Allan Blonde suggests, then we are in for a treat in years to come if they become more widely available. But in the meantime, please do not underestimate the very fine quality of these latest EMI reissues, in recording, digital remastering or transfer quality, but perhaps most importantly in the quality of the performances, which time after time makes you so very grateful for Beecham's legacy.
However, these 2011 transfers, for example of the Schubert symphonies, are quite significantly cleaner and clearer in sound than those of the 1989 CD transfers with which I have been able to make a direct comparison. This isn't to be confused with harshness or an emphasis on treble at the expense of bass. Indeed the bass on the 2011 transfer of the Schubert is actually fuller than in the previous transfer of the 1989 remastering. I will hold on to that 1989 transfer in case I ever want to go back to that earlier 'analogue' sound, with its nostalgic warmth of sound (and subsequent loss of detail), but I can see myself often returning to listen to the 2011 transfer too, for example to hear the wonderful, cleanly reproduced, woodwind playing - such a strength of the Royal Philharmonic in Beecham's day. For more examples of this, do try to hear the joyous performance of the Beethoven 7th - so well reproduced in a recording which is now over fifty years old. Likewise the almost sixty five year old 1948 recording of Don Quixote with Tortelier is both astonishingly clean and full in tone. Here it is clear why EMI have sensibly left the 1989 transfers to speak for themselves.
If indeed the EMI Japan issues are such an improvement over these current UK releases as Allan Blonde suggests, then we are in for a treat in years to come if they become more widely available. But in the meantime, please do not underestimate the very fine quality of these latest EMI reissues, in recording, digital remastering or transfer quality, but perhaps most importantly in the quality of the performances, which time after time makes you so very grateful for Beecham's legacy.
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