The performances in this box constitute the highest achievement of Thomas Beecham with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Though his many EMI/Columbia recordings of the standard and not so standard repertoire were among the finest of their time, Beecham's Haydn was and remains special. All Beecham's best qualities are in his Haydn -- suave phrasing, smooth shaping, an unerring sense of drama, and an innate feeling for the lyrical line, plus something more: a sense of kinship with the composer.Born to money and supremely ...
Read More
The performances in this box constitute the highest achievement of Thomas Beecham with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Though his many EMI/Columbia recordings of the standard and not so standard repertoire were among the finest of their time, Beecham's Haydn was and remains special. All Beecham's best qualities are in his Haydn -- suave phrasing, smooth shaping, an unerring sense of drama, and an innate feeling for the lyrical line, plus something more: a sense of kinship with the composer.Born to money and supremely talented, Beecham naturally understood himself to be on a more or less equal footing with the composers whose music he conducted, but he appeared almost to identify with the Austrian classical master. In the London symphonies, Beecham leads performances suffused with character, wit, and invention, performances that constantly surprise but always fulfill, performances altogether individualistic but absolutely right in tone and temper, performances, in sum, very much like both the composer...
Read Less
