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SOMM Recordings

The Beecham Collection - Berlioz & Wagner: Orchestral Excerp

$20.99

Details

Composer
Hector Berlioz, Richard Wagner
Artist
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Format
CD
Label
SOMM Recordings
Released
Jun 19, 2026
Catalog #
SOMM-BEECHAM 35
UPC
758871013529

About

SOMM Recordings continues it's much-admired and long-running series The Beecham Collection with it's 35th release of live recordings by Sir Thomas Beecham and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. The recording highlights the operatic side of Beecham with orchestral excerpts from Les Troyens and La Damnation de Faust by Hector Berlioz, and Tannhäuser, Parsifal, Götterdämmerung, and Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg by Richard Wagner. Producer and audio engineer Lani Spahr, whose work for SOMM on Elgar from the Archives has been described by Gramophone Magazine as "astounding" and "revelatory," is once again responsible for the audio restoration on this release. The professional debut of Sir Thomas Beecham, Bart., C.H. took place on 6 December 1899 in St Helen's Town Hall when he was twenty years old. He conducted the Hungarian March from La Damnation de Faust by Berlioz with the Hallé Orchestra, and the music of Berlioz was to become one of the cornerstones of his repertoire for the next six decades. This present recording of the Hungarian March is a gloriously uninhibited performance that brought the house down at the end of a 1955 concert at the Royal Festival Hall. That concert also included two excerpts from Les Troyens by Berlioz. The Prelude to The Trojans at Carthage is followed by The Royal Hunt and Storm, with the Oxford Bach Choir providing the brief choral contribution from Nymphs, Sylvans, and Fauns. These performances are remarkable for their atmospheric poetry in the slower sections and the rampaging energy in the faster music. During the same year as his professional debut, a young Beecham made his pilgrimage to Bayreuth, and he became an enthusiastic, instinctual conductor of Wagner's music. The renowned music critic Neville Cardus once noted that, while German conductors tended to take a reflective and philosophical approach in interpreting Wagner, Sir Thomas concentrated on the dramatic and picturesque parts of the music. This concentration on colour and drama makes his conducting of the orchestral extracts included on this release both satisfying and full of character. These four orchestral excerpts were recorded at the Royal Festival Hall on 17 December 1958. The concert opened with the Overture and Venusberg Music from Tannhäuser; for decades one of Beecham's warhorses as a concert opener. Orchestral excerpts from Parsifal appeared regularly on Beecham's concert programmes, and this 1958 concert featured the Good Friday Music. Beecham conducted a number of Ring cycles during his career, and his affinity with the music shines through in this recording of Siegfried's Rhine Journey from Götterdämmerung. This release closes with the Prelude to Act One of Die Meistersinger, about which the review in the Daily Telegraph said, "the thickly overlaid texture of the overture can seldom have been given with such golden clarity."

Tracklist 7 tracks

  1. 1 Act I: Prelude 05:31
    Track
    1
    Title
    Act I: Prelude
    Duration
    05:31
    Composer
    Hector Berlioz
    Ensemble
    Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
    Conductor
    Thomas Beecham
  2. 2 Act IV: Chasse royale et orage: Pantomime 10:10
    Track
    2
    Title
    Act IV: Chasse royale et orage: Pantomime
    Duration
    10:10
    Composer
    Hector Berlioz
    Ensemble
    Oxford Bach Choir, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
    Conductor
    Thomas Beecham
  3. 3 La damnation de Faust, Op. 24, Part I: Hungarian March, "Rákóczy March" 04:07
    Track
    3
    Title
    La damnation de Faust, Op. 24, Part I: Hungarian March, "Rákóczy March"
    Duration
    04:07
    Composer
    Hector Berlioz
    Ensemble
    Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
    Conductor
    Thomas Beecham
  4. 4 Tannhäuser: Overture - Venusberg Music 22:35
    Track
    4
    Title
    Tannhäuser: Overture - Venusberg Music
    Duration
    22:35
    Composer
    Richard Wagner
    Ensemble
    Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
    Conductor
    Thomas Beecham
  5. 5 Parsifal, Act III: Karfreitagszauber (Good Friday Music) 11:00
    Track
    5
    Title
    Parsifal, Act III: Karfreitagszauber (Good Friday Music)
    Duration
    11:00
    Composer
    Richard Wagner
    Ensemble
    Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
    Conductor
    Thomas Beecham
  6. 6 Götterdämmerung (Twilight of the Gods), Act I: Dawn and Siegfried's Rhine Journey 09:37
    Track
    6
    Title
    Götterdämmerung (Twilight of the Gods), Act I: Dawn and Siegfried's Rhine Journey
    Duration
    09:37
    Composer
    Richard Wagner
    Ensemble
    Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
    Conductor
    Thomas Beecham
  7. 7 Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (The Mastersingers of Nuremberg), Act I: Prelude 09:20
    Track
    7
    Title
    Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (The Mastersingers of Nuremberg), Act I: Prelude
    Duration
    09:20
    Composer
    Richard Wagner
    Ensemble
    Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
    Conductor
    Thomas Beecham