Thomas Beecham recorded these Berlioz overtures for English Columbia in December, 1954 when his hand-picked Royal Philharmonic boasted the best of London’s orchestral players. The performances retain all of their original verve and élan. A curtain-raising Le Carnaval romain finds Beecham in his element, summoning a thrilling adrenalin-rush at the start and relaxing elegantly into the beautifully played English horn solo that follows. There’s comparable swagger in Le Corsaire, too. With Beecham, you sometimes feel that this overture is two different pieces linked together. The conductor achieves maximal contrast between the swashbuckling, salt-licked outer sections (where the virtuosity of the RPO violins of the period can be sampled) and provides moments of quiet contemplation, notably in the passage following the opening flourish. Every accelerando-crescendo lead-back to the opening theme is skillfully done, and Beecham highlights details of scoring–for example, you can plainly detect coloristic differences between trumpets and cornets.
Slightly less effective are Les Francs Juges and Waverley. Beecham never quite negotiates the abrupt tempo-changes before the big string theme of the former (Yoav Talmi’s version with the San Diego Symphony proves it can sound seamless), and in Waverley there are several intonation glitches and ensemble problems among the cellos in their section solos. But the RPO brass play with firm, weighty tone throughout, and the vibrato-tinged, aptly French-sounding first trumpet adds extra character here. Lastly, Beecham’s accounts of the two excerpts from Les Troyens are effective, but it’s a pity the “Royal Hunt and Storm” wasn’t included. Sony’s transfers may strike some as a touch over-bright, but otherwise they render the music clearly, with a solid bottom and plenty of impact.
