Beecham Night 2.5.11

[aeolium]

I shall be listening to the forthcoming Beecham Night on R3 next Monday. I hope the contributors will concentrate on Beecham the musician rather than the 'character' - the latter often puts people off and leads them to ignore or belittle his real achievements, which I think are considerable. Also it would be good to hear some musical excerpts off the beaten track, e.g. from his recording of the Busoni piano concerto with Noel Mewton-Wood.

[amateur51]

I shall be listening to the forthcoming Beecham Night on R3 next Monday. I hope the contributors will concentrate on Beecham the musician rather than the 'character' - the latter often puts people off and leads them to ignore or belittle his real achievements, which I think are considerable. Also it would be good to hear some musical excerpts off the beaten track, e.g. from his recording of the Busoni piano concerto with Noel Mewton-Wood.

Oh yes please.

In fact, what about a biography of this wonderful pianist who died in tragic circumstances and extremely young and unfulfilled as an artist.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noel_Mewton-Wood

I suspect that the Beecham night may follow the content of the recent Jon Tolansky CD set about Beecham which someone ( Chris Newman?) has reported is mercifully free on Beecham's 'quips'

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dclassical&field-keywords=Beecham+Tolansky&x=0&y=0

[salymap]

Iam afraid it won't be free of Beecham quips and stories. We are promised 'examples of Beecham's famously coruscating wit', recreated by actor Timothy West, who has played Beecham on stage

[amateur51]

Iam afraid it won't be free of Beecham quips and stories. We are promised 'examples of Beecham's famously coruscating wit', recreated by actor Timothy West, who has played Beecham on stage

Crikey salymap, that's something to look forward to, isn't it

[Don Petter]

I suspect that the Beecham night may follow the content of the recent Jon Tolansky CD set about Beecham which someone ( Chris Newman?) has reported is mercifully free on Beecham's 'quips'

am,

You are right about the CD set. It was my observation about its freedom from quips, I believe.

saly has pointed out that the programmes will not be. Let us hope, with aeolium, that the rest of the content will compensate.

[MrGongGong]

OH NO not the famous "wit"

[amateur51]

am,

You are right about the CD set. It was my observation about its freedom from quips, I believe.

saly has pointed out that the programmes will not be. Let us hope, with aeolium, that the rest of the content will compensate.

My apols & thanks Don!

Why can't they take the lead from this set?

To misquote a favourite line from Schlesinger's Sunday, Bloody Sunday:

"Not those tired old quips again"

[salymap]

Never mind the length of the Holst film; the Beecham radio programme lasts from 7.30pm until 11pm

Much as I liked Beecham[well, most of the time], how am I to listen to all this? Put it on a video on Freeview?
Listen on iPlayer later? Lots of tapes? Don't have more modern recording methods. Itshould have been shorter and cut the cackle re. the interminable Beecham stories. Does anyone agree?

[aeolium]

You can listen on iPlayer over several sessions - it usually carries on from where you left off.

I agree that it should be an assessment of his musical achievement, hopefully showing the very wide range of repertoire that he commanded, with some contributions from players who worked with him about the techniques he used to obtain his results (e.g. marking of orchestral scores). Some mention of the 'wisecracking' is unavoidable, as it was part of his character, but I hope not overstressed. I don't know enough about Beecham as a person but I wonder whether this may have started out as a protective device and then actually became something expected of him, so a bit of a burden - anyway, the programme may enlighten us.

[aeolium]

Well, I did listen and enjoyed it - there were quite a few recordings I was unfamiliar with. I was expecting a lot more extracts but it was a good idea to include some complete works including the Haydn symphony and the Mendelssohn Italian recorded from a live performance. There wasn't too much in the way of comic anecdote and the programme gave a good initial overview of the conductor and his approach to different music. A slight disappointment was that it concentrated on fairly familiar repertoire and didn't go off the beaten track enough. Some extracts were wonderful - the Tristan love duet with Melchior and Flagstad showed what a fine opera conductor he was.

[salymap]

Aeolium. That's good to hear. I heard about an hour of it before my dodgy back gave out and I went to bed. I look forward to hearing the remainder later. Did they play the Schubert Sym 5? His recording is pure magic IMO.

I see you mention marking scores. I worked in a hire library and he marked his 'tied up' but not owned sets of parts with thick blue crayon, no one else would want them and we kept them for him where possible. Several conductors did this and initialled the corner of the cover, just to make their claims. He never came in like some, sent George Brownfoot; his librarian for many years.

[aeolium]

Did they play the Schubert Sym 5?

No, they didn't, salymap, at least as far as I can recall - I missed about 15 minutes of the programme in the middle. Yes, his Schubert symphonies are really good - I especially like no 3.

The marking of parts was commented on in the programme by David Cairns, who also mentioned that Beecham would go back to parts he had already marked and change them to obtain a slightly different effect. Cairns said that one of the qualities that made Beecham stand out was his rhythmic sense but for me it's the phrasing and articulation, which clearly was not simply an effect of what happened during rehearsal and performance but was the result of long preparation.

Some of what Beecham did was undoubtedly controversial and would be unheard of today - e.g. the relocation of Constanze's Martern aller Arten aria to the third act of die Entführung aus dem Serail - and the Handel in Bath arrangements, some of which was played (I quite liked it).

It must have been quite an experience to attend a Beecham concert - nothing he ever played sounded dull.

[salymap]

One thing I noticed about Beecham and Barbirolli is that at the RAH, before the RFH was built,
Sargent,Boult and others knew how to 'balance' the sections of the orchestra whereever one sat. With Beecham and Barbirolli I often found the brass and percussion too loud if seated in the arena or stalls.Perhaps they weren't so used to the RAH,I don'tknow.

[amateur51]

Aeolium. That's good to hear. I heard about an hour of it before my dodgy back gave out and I went to bed. I look forward to hearing the remainder later. Did they play the Schubert Sym 5? His recording is pure magic IMO.

I see you mention marking scores. I worked in a hire library and he marked his 'tied up' but not owned sets of parts with thick blue crayon, no one else would want them and we kept them for him where possible. Several conductors did this and initialled the corner of the cover, just to make their claims. He never came in like some, sent George Brownfoot; his librarian for many years.

Saly, I know you'll object, cite your memory, etc but you must set these stories down for posterity, they are pure gold and you tell them so well

What if we clubbed together for a bottle of sherry, a hamper from Fortnum's and someone to interview you, getting your stories on tape, then get them transcribed, all rights & profits to go to you (may need to consult with Caliban on this )??

Much more fun than 2 hours plus about Holst imho!!

[salymap]

Am51, not that old thing again. You could always save my messages for yourself if you wanted to. Don't embarrass me again about this rubbish There are some musicians on the boards who might take up your offer perhaps?