The world-renowned soprano Joan Sutherland left her Sydney home for London in 1952, with the ultimate aim of singing Wagner. Contracted to Covent Garden, she felt her future lay in heavy, dramatic roles; and her early assignments there included Amelia in Verdis Un ballo in maschera and the title role in Aida. Soon her breathtaking agility, crystalline staccatos and unique stratospheric purity became evident not least as Jenifer in Tippetts The Midsummer Marriage, followed swiftly by the doll Olympia in Offenbachs Les contes dHoffmann (both 1955). Although increasingly identified with the bel canto repertoire, until her 1959 Covent Garden triumph in Donizettis Lucia di Lammermoor she kept her options open. The title role in Webers Euryanthe was one of several German, lyric roles added to her repertoire during the mid-1950s, alongside Pamina in Mozarts Die Zauberflöte and Eva in Wagners Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg. She was also to remain a staunch Handelian throughout her career, recording the title role in Athalia under Christopher Hogwood (Decca) as late as 1986.

Beyond its musical riches, this medley of 1950s BBC radio broadcasts (from the Richard Itter Collection) opens a portal on England’s post-war Handelian revival. It is no accident that all these performances involve Thurston Dart, as harpsichordist, conductor or musicologist. His energy inspired a generation of musicians to explore neglected works by Handel and a host of other baroque composers, in a lithe chamber style more appropriate to their work than the heavyweight, orchestral grandeur favoured by previous generations. The efforts of Dart and other performers featured here paved the way for those more radical, ‘historically informed’ performance practices, which swept all before them in later decades.

All the recordings presented here were made ‘off-air’ using a state-of-the-art tape machine. Subsequently they were archived on disc acetates – the tapes themselves being erased and reused. The performance of Symphony 103, conducted by Harry Newstone, is the only one for which the original tape survives. The discs were stored upright in a single location, they had probably never been moved or played, and so have survived more than 60 years in remarkably good condition. The original documentation, by both cataloguing and typed center labels on each disc gives full details of the performers and transmission dates. Richard Itter was generous in not trying to fit too much music on each side – but rather less kind when it came to the abrupt fades on last notes and applause. Here is a rich smorgasbord of Haydn from a wide range of conductors: some reached back into the 19th century, some were the travelling maestros of their time, and some formed British Orchestras that enriched the diet of our nation’s musical life.

Leopold Stokowski was born in London of Polish/Irish ancestry in 1882 and showed such an early aptitude for music that he was able to enter the Royal College of Music at the tender age of 13, the youngest student at that time to do so. His first foreign tour took place in the spring of 1951 when, at the invitation of Sir Thomas Beecham, he took the Royal Philharmonic on a tour of England to coincide with the 'Festival of Britain' that year. It was during this tour that he also made his first appearance with the BBC Symphony Orchestra in a Royal Festival Hall concert that included Beethoven's 7th Symphony and Stravinsky's Rite of Spring. During the next couple of years Stokowski performed many works with the BBC Symphony in a Maida Vale studio programme which included two full-length radio broadcasts. One such broadcast was on May 5, 1954, consisting of Malcolm Arnold's Beckus the Dandipratt, Glière's Concerto for Coloratura Soprano and Orchestra, and the Enescu Romanian Rhapsody No. 1. We must be grateful that Richard Itter recorded the three short works from the first concert, in particular in the case of the Arnold and Glière works, Stokowski was performing both of them for the only time in his life. It was Tchaikovsky's 5th Symphony that he played the most, having conducted it for the first time in Cincinnati in 1910. The performance heard here has a certain historical interest as it was the very last time he conducted the work. A packed Royal Albert Hall responded with great enthusiasm to the nonagenarian maestro and indeed to the youthful band of players on the platform.

The Hunting of the Snark tells the tale of several characters who go on a sea journey, searching for a mythical creature called “The Snark,” whatever it may be, for the Snark is different things to each of the characters. The Baker’s uncle once told him, “If your Snark be a Boojum!... You will softly and suddenly vanish away, and never be met with again!” Through this journey relationships develop, tensions rise and the Baker’s worst nightmare comes true. The Hunting of the Snark shares its fictional setting with Lewis Carroll’s earlier poem “Jabberwocky” published in his children’s novel Through the Looking Glass (1871). Eight nonsense words from “Jabberwocky” appear in The Hunting of the Snark: bandersnatch, beamish, frumious, galumphing, jubjub, mimsiest, outgrabe and uffish. In a letter to the mother of his young friend Gertrude Chataway, Carroll described the domain of the Snark as “an island frequented by the Jubjub and the Bandersnatch- no doubt the very island where the Jabberwock was slain.” Douglas Young (b. 1947) won the competition scholarship to the Royal College of Music, London and the Karl Rankl Prize for orchestral composition. He has written several scores for the Royal ballet, and in the 90’s widened his scope to encompass jazz, popular dance music, film scores, and advertising jingles.

To have been a composer in late 19th century Germany must have been a mixed blessing. The pantheon of greats featured the refined Brahms, the revolutionary Wagner, and the romantic Reinecke. This left little room, therefore, for composers of less renown, especially those whom the musical and political establishment would have chosen to keep out of the limelight. Salomon Jadassohn found little support for his work as a composer. Although Jadassohn was a distinguished teacher and wrote several important books on composition and music theory, he considered himself primarily a composer. He was acknowledged to be a master of counterpoint and harmony, but he was also a gifted melodist in the tradition of Mendelssohn. His works show too the influence of Wagner and Liszt, whose music deeply impressed him. This double release includes Jadassohn’s Symphony No. 1, a light and attractive work, four Serenades, which are equally as charming, and a Piano Concerto.