Sir Malcolm Sargent conducts the National Symphony Orchestra (recored in 1945/6) in Beethoven Symphonies 4 and 5, plus Grieg's Lyric Suite
"I have heard performances which critics would have raved about had some conductor from Russia been responsible for them, conducting them half as well and truthfully." Neville Cardus writing Sir Malcolm Sargent's obituary in The Guardian 4 October 1967
The National Symphony Orchestra was a remarkable wartime phenomena. Created by Victor Olof for fellow conductor Sidney Beer in 1942 when London orchestras were depleted by the call to arms this orchestra consisted mainly of young musicians in British Army and Royal Air Force bands stationed in and around London. They were based in London's premier recording venue for orchestras, the Methodist Church's Kingsway Hall.
Decca made these recordings in the Kingsway Hall at a time when they were perfecting recording techniques that stemmed from an Admiralty commission to develop a hydrophone capable of detecting audio frequencies as high as 12KHz (12,000 cycles per second). Decca used their hydrophone developments to produce a moving coil disc cutter reaching 14KHz. In reproducing these recordings we have resisted the temptation to remove all the background noise, as this would compromise the original recorded sound. Most people find that after the first couple of minutes they ignore the surface noise and enjoy the performance, and these performances are entrancing.
These recordings are presented in One Sound The brilliance, clarity and presence of these recordings made by the legendary balance engineer Kenneth Wilkinson spurred the remastering team lead by Barry Coward at Beulah to reproduce on compact discs a sound which when played through a single loudspeaker either directly in front of the listener or from a corner reflex cabinet will propel the listener into the Kingsway Hall with its live acoustic, and the National Symphony orchestra of the 1940s. It sounds pretty good through two speakers, but the advantage of using a single speaker is that you will hear the original balance without any phase problems or side effects.
Bob Briggs at Muisc Web International writes: There's much to be admired and enjoyed in this performance of Beethoven's Fourth Symphony - the excellent ensemble in the staccato chords of the slow introduction to the first movement, the high tension as the music builds to the Allegro vivace, which simply bursts out of the speakers with life; high spirits abound...The slow movement is never allowed to slip into romantic gesture and the scherzo goes off like a rocket, but is shorn of the repeat of the second part of the scherzo. The finale returns to high spirits with some wonderfully bucolic bassoon solos and the exposition is repeated!...I haven't enjoyed this symphony so much in years! Full marks for the interpretation. The Fifth Symphony isn't quite as successful a performance for one simple reason: Sargent sees the first twenty-four bars of the first movement as an introduction, before the music can really get going. And get going it does - until the exposition is repeated (bravo) - when we get the portentous application of the brakes for the first twenty four bars. Then again, for the first four bars of the development section (bars 125/128) the brakes are applied, before the music once more takes off. And so on, throughout the movement, whenever the famous four notes appear on full orchestra everything comes to a standstill. Bars 303/306 contain the usual reorchestration of the bassoon part for the horns. However, despite this rather annoying habit, this is thrilling stuff and one is quite carried away by the sheer verve of the playing and the interpretation - the wind band is especially fine. The slow movement is very well paced, with only a rather large rallentando heralding the end of the 78 side. The scherzo races along, with lots of fun in the manic trio with the fugal string entries - exciting bass and cello playing here. In general, the timpani have not recorded well, but when it really matters, as in the transition music from scherzo to finale, the drums are most telling and very well captured. Then comes the excitement and culmination of the musical journey. Sargent pushes the music along and, as you'd expect, he doesn't repeat the exposition... these are electrifying performances: alive, alert, brimming with energy and fire, but with poetry in the slow movements. There are no frills in these readings; Sargent is truly the servant of the composer. What is more, I haven't been as excited by Beethoven's Fifth Symphony in a long time. If this wasn't enough, there's a delightful performance of Grieg's Lyric Suite to complete the disc. The final March of the Dwarfs is a real rollicking affair. Barry Coward's transfers are fine, with a little surface noise remaining, thus allowing the upper frequencies to register. This is how transfers from 78 should be. I cannot welcome this disc too highly. It's great music-making which should be heard by anyone interested in the art of performance and everyone interested in music.
Robert Matthew-Walker in February 2008 International Record Reivew writes: It is good to be reminded of this conductor at his best, as he consistenly is in No. 4, in which all four movements are played at virtually ideal tempos, a reading that is remarkably "straight", unfussy and wholly classical in feeling...this CD is a worthy memento of a much loved British musician.
