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1PD44
Collin Davis conducts Beethoven and Brahms
Beethoven Symphony No. 7
"Edward Greenfield wrote that
it was ‘a lively sympathetic account to rival any in the catalogue …
[with] well balanced recording’... and I’m very pleased to see that
Beulah have reissued it now. It holds its own for me against the many
Beethoven symphony recordings which Davis went on to make in the UK,
Holland, Germany and the USA. The recording is a touch less detailed
than we would expect now, but it’s come up very well in this
transfer... Some conductors seem to delight in seeing how fast they can
take the finale without losing the orchestra. Davis is fairly fast at
6:42 – all the recordings which I list below are noticeably slower –
but the RPO never come off the rails ... From an earlier period Beulah
have released Erich Kleiber’s 1950 mono recording – an excellent
performance but the sound inevitably sounds dated by comparison with
the Davis. (9-12BX6) " Brian Wilson at Music Web International
Brahms Variations on a theme by Haydn
"The recordings have come up well in Beulah’s transfers
...There’s nothing revelatory but there’s nothing run of the mill here,
either." Brian Wilson at Music Web
International
Although not currently available
on compact disc you
can buy these tracks at

1PD48 Historic Brahms Trios
Horn Trio in E flat major Op.40
Aubrey Brain(horn)
Adolf Busch (violin)
Rudolf Serkin(Piano)
1933 recording
Piano Trio No. 2 in C Op. 87
Myra Hess (piano)
Jelly d’Aranyi (violin)
Gaspar Cassado (cello)
1935 recording
Although not currently available
on compact disc you
can buy these tracks at
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New from Beulah Extra
"I must admit to some feelings of ambiguity
when it comes to George Malcolm’s Bach: we owe much of what we now
think of as authentic performance to him and Thurston Dart, but the
instruments which he employed would now be regarded as inauthentic. The
miracle is that he was able to produce a performance of such subtlety
as this of the Italian Concerto – plenty of virtuoso playing and
forward momentum, though not clockwork-sounding and with real delicacy
where it’s called for. The recording has come up sounding well.
With such fine performances, my likes easily outweigh my reservations
in the final analysis." Brian Wilson at Muisc
Web International

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1st movement
2nd movement

3rd movement
4th movemnet
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"Recording a full orchestra was still a
hazardous business in 1929 and 1931, so it’s hardly surprising that the
recording shows its age, though by a good deal less than I had
expected.
There’s some inevitable 78 rpm light frying noise in the background,
though it’s not really troublesome.
The performance was worth
perpetuating: an exciting account of the first movement is punctuated
by occasional rubato to a greater extent than is now usual. After the
first movement I didn’t notice anything that wouldn’t pass muster
nowadays – or perhaps I was becoming more attuned to Coates’s manner.
Whatever the reason, I enjoyed hearing this blast from the past." Brian
Wilson at Muisc
Web International

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1st movement

2nd movement

3rd and 4th movements
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"The recording is not great, even for its age,
and there’s a fair amount of surface noise, though it didn’t prevent me
from enjoying the performance. The variations on Ein’ feste Burg in the
finale go with a real swing – the highlight of an idiomatic performance
of the whole symphony." Brian Wilson at Muisc
Web International

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"Lisa della Casa had a small but very beautiful
voice and she uses it to good effect here in these four Schubert
lieder, four of the very best works that he composed for the female
voice. By comparison with the likes of Gerald Moore, her accompanist,
whom I had never even heard of, is efficient but no great shakes.
Whether through his influence or from her own inclination, the
rallentandi complained of in 1957 do sound artificial, though they
didn’t spoil my enjoyment. I could have wished, too, that she had shown
the same sympathy for Du bist die Ruh’ as Busch and Serkin for the same
tune in their recording of the Fantasie (above). Gretchen am Spinnrade
is sung superbly, with real feeling for the music.
The recording is good, though, surprisingly for John Culshaw, both
della Casa and Hudez sound rather distant; turning up the volume
inevitably increases the otherwise hardly noticeable tape hiss." Brian
Wilson at Muisc
Web International

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"This Fantasie deserves to be much better known
and Adolf Busch and Rudolf Serkin form a dream partnership in the
music; each was famous in his own right, the former as leader of the
eponymous Busch Quartet, while Serkin was to go on until well into the
stereo era as a renowned soloist, especially in Mozart, Beethoven and
Brahms.
Only last month I fell in love with a cello-and-piano transcription of
the Fantasie, performed by Pieter Wispelwey and Paolo Giacometti
(ONYX4046) – more authentic in their use of period instruments, but
less so in employing a transcription – but Busch and Serkin are even
more intense in their performance of the andantino variations on Sei
mir gegrüsst.
The recording sounds surprisingly well for its age, thanks, no doubt to
the care taken with the transfer. There’s a good frequency- and dynamic
range and only very light surface noise." Brian Wilson at Muisc
Web International

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1st movement
2nd movement
3rd movement
4th movement
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"This is a reconstruction of Schubert’s ‘real’
seventh symphony, not Joachim’s orchestrated version of the Grand Duo
which was once thought to be the lost Gmunden-Gastein symphony, as
recorded among others by Michael Halász on Naxos and, with greater
success by Claudio Abbado on DG. Schubert drafted this but orchestrated
only a small part – it’s one of several symphonies that deserve the
appellation ‘unfinished’, perhaps more than the eighth which usually
goes by that title. He seems to have somehow lost his nerve for
completing symphonies around this time but Weingartner’s completion
demonstrates that the work was good enough to have been rescued and it
receives a sympathetic performance; though the VSOO were hardly the
equals of their more famous neighbours the Vienna Phil, there’s nothing
much amiss with their playing here and Litschauer proves himself an
accomplished Schubertian.
So why did I find the whole thing enjoyable
but unmemorable?
This recording, though made in 1952, was not released in the UK until
several years later, on the Vanguard label. Many Vanguard recordings
from the 1950s still sound fine, but this has not worn too well. In
Beulah’s transcription it still sounds thin, though perfectly
acceptable and mercifully free from surface noise." Brian Wilson at Muisc
Web International
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