Beecham

The Beecham Messiah of 1959 is another early stereo recording that polarizes listeners, with understandable cause. Like the Ormandy Messiah (with its liberal cuts) or the Bernstein Messiah (which changes the order around), The Beecham recording incites friction on a couple of counts, the most egregious being the re-orchestration arranged by Sir Eugene Goossens.

For anyone compiling a directory of the ‘greatest recordings’ of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra some nominations are easy to classify. Sir Thomas Beecham’s 1937/8 Berlin recording of Mozart’s The Magic Flute is certainly one of them. Originally re-mastered in 1991 it is pleasing to have this Nimbus set available in the catalogue…
– Michael Cookson, MusicWeb International

Sir Thomas Beecham was acknowledged as the finest interpreter of Delius' music during the last century. The composer's friend and biographer, his performances remain a benchmark against which all must be judged. This invaluable anthology contains some of the finest he taped for EMI in the 1940's and 50's. The first two discs contain all those works he recorded in stereo. They comprise a selection of shorter works, the complete Florida Suite and a wonderful 'Songs of Sunset' - settings of 'fin du siecle' poems by Ernest Dowson - splendidly sung by John Cameron and Maureen Forrester.

The operas of Grétry are seldom recorded, and even less often performed, today. The composer was for a time the personal director of music to Marie-Antoinette and there is a strong vein of pretty artificiality which can seem at best trivial in unsympathetic hands. The present recording is certainly not in such hands as Beecham had a particular liking for the music of Grétry and his contemporaries.

As with many of the BBC Legends issues, it seems clear enough who the target audience is. Beechamites will want to acquire this recording as a matter of course, and for serious students of the Ninth, this is the only opportunity to hear it performed by one of the most fascinating conductors of the 20th Century. ’Nuff said. – FANFARE: Richard A. Kaplan

Sir Thomas Beecham's Messiah has become notorious among baroque purists (like this writer) for embodying the worst excesses of pre-1960 Handel performance: ponderous tempos, stentorian opera singers, huge lumbering choruses and orchestras, crashing cymbals, clanging triangles…. Well, we'll need a new straw man: this performance is Wonderful…