D. M. Thomas

Die Oper Powder Her Face von Thomas Adès ist eines der überzeugendsten und stärksten Werke zeitgenössischer Kunst. Das tragische und auf grausame Art auch spaßige Libretto des englischen Schreibtalents Philip Hensher berichtet über den skandalösen Aufstieg und Fall der Lady Margaret, Herzogin von Argyll, deren Scheidungsverfahren in den 50er Jahren wegen der freizügigen Schilderung ihres Sexuallebens für Aufsehen gesorgt hatte.

Thomas Albertus Irnberger, violin, and Pavel Kašpar, piano, lead us with this album into the bourgeois salon of the late 19th century – an oasis amid the "good old days" which weren’t, of course, that good to begin with: mired turmoil, social inequalities, and wars as much and more than ever since. The invited audience were to listen to Hungarian dances by Brahms, Kodály or Rachmaninoff, Csárdás’ by Franz Lehár, Miska Hauser or Jeno Hubay, Romances, Fantasies and other melodies by Tchaikovsky, Leopold Auer, Carl Bohm or Joseph Joachim. Some songs from operettas by Lehár, Jeno Huszka, Emmerich Kálmán and Pongrác Kacsóh with the Hungarian soprano Brigitta Simon complete this musical visit to the "Salon de Budapest".

This must be one of the most important historical documents ever to appear from previously unavailable archives. Much as we admire and praise Davis’s Berlioz (whose latest Trojans we reviewed last month)‚ Beecham has to be at least his peer on this and much other evidence. His arresting‚ inspiriting and brilliantly crafted performance here is a thing to marvel at in its understanding of the true Berlioz spirit. He persuades his newly formed RPO and the BBC Theatre Chorus of the day into giving quite thrilling accounts of their music that not even indifferent sound can mar. Beecham was to have returned‚ at Covent Garden‚ to the grand masterpiece in 1960‚ but that was not to be: a severe stroke prevented what would surely have been his crowning service to Berlioz right at the end of his distinguished career.