Win a Beulah 2012 Calendar

2011-12-26T19:37:00.000Z

We are giving away a copy of our Rails 2012 calendar to the first person who correctly identifies the location of the pictures for each of the twelve months.

2011 REVIEW

2011-12-01T10:59:00.000Z

Here is our choice of the 12 best recordings released by Beulah during 2011

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1st movement

2nd movement

3rd and 4th movements

Trevor Harvey was one of those reviewers whose opinions always seemed spot-on at the time when I was beginning to build a classical collection. He referred to this as a strong performance: one of the best things he had ever heard Cluytens do. 'It seeks to make no efforts, but by very virtue of its honest strength ends by making a great impression. In its stereo form it is again a success.'

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"I'm very pleased to see the great Dutch singer Aafje Heynis in what was rightly hailed in 1961 as her greatest Bach recording - and she had already made a few. It’s good, too, to see the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra and Szymon Goldberg up and running again... his collaboration with Heynis here is treasurable and the Philips recording has come up well in the Beulah transfer." Brian Wilson writing at Music Web International

You may like to follow this link to an excerpt from Aafje Heynis in BWV170:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dfu6cIx1V10

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"I’m very happy to see the Willcocks version reissued on its own here: with its sense of innigkeit, the description ‘magnificently done’ is just as applicable now as it was when the LP was reviewed in 1960." Brian Wilson writing at Music Web International

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"With Elgar’s own historical version and Sir Andrew Davis’s highly-praised digital recording on a super-budget Warner Apex CD it might seem that this particular musical larder is fully stocked. But there’s always room for Boult’s interpretation, characterised at the time of its first release on a 10" Nixa mono LP as riper, more genial and expressive than its Decca rival from Anthony Collins. I concur with all those adjectives – I’d even say that they applied to this version even more than to Davis – and the recording still sounds well, though it’s no match for the Warner version in that respect. Like the original LP, the transfer benefits from a boost in volume." Brian Wilson writing at Music Web International

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Tuneful and attractive music in an idiomatic performance and sound which belies its age: even though it’s a mono recording, there’s plenty of air around the music. This kind of blast from the past is most welcome. Brian Wilson writing at Music Web International

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1st movement

2nd movement

3rd movement

"You might say that Campoli's urbane and warmly felt account is the nearest thing we have to a Kreisler Elgar Concerto." Robert Cowan in Gramphone February 2006

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Thomas Jensen was an authoritative conductor of Nielsen’s music and his recording of the Inextinguishable Symphony may have been equalled but it has never been bettered. The Beulah transfer leaves the recording sounding limited by modern standards but remarkable for its age with minimal surface noise and a decent tonal range which in no way interfered with my enjoyment. The fact that the symphony comes complete on one track means that there are none of the short breaks between tracks which usually occur with mp3 where the music is continuous. Brian Wilson at Music Web International

Dawson’s fine singing makes even the less accomplished music sound well. Though only Albert Arlen’s Clancy of the Overflow was recorded in stereo (1955) and some of the recordings date from as early as 1920, Beulah’s transfer makes the most of the sound. Brian Wilson at Music Web International

56PD13 Mendelssohn Elijah

The classic 1947 recording made in Huddersfield Town Hall with the Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, the Huddersfield Choral Society, Isobel Baillie (soprano), Gladys Ripley (contralto), James Johnston (tenor) and Harrold Williams (bass-baritone), conducted by Sir Malcolm Sargent.
This double album is availble for the price of a single album

"Isobel Baillie in particular was a noted soprano soloist in Messiah and Elijah and at 52 still in good voice. By today’s standards, the female soloists sound a trifle plummy and their male counterparts a bit stentorian: ...there’s no doubting Sargent’s absolute commitment to the music. He was something of a man for all seasons, turning his hand to performances of all kinds of music that were always very competent though rarely more, but his Messiah and Elijah transcend his usual standard. Try the closing chorus of Part 1 if you want to be uplifted.The recording was thought to leave something to be desired in 1947, especially in terms of balance, so I would have expected some pretty dire sound had Barry Coward of Beulah not alerted me to the quality of what he had conjured out of the ancient grooves. Hi-fi it certainly isn’t, but it is remarkably good for its age, with just a trace of surface noise . I can well believe that those who know the Huddersfield sound think it perfectly recreated here. Thus an important historical document becomes more of a pleasure too. "Brian Wilson at Music Web International

Although not currently available on compact disc you can buy these tracks at

2PD82 American Wind Band Classics

Eastman Wind Ensemble conductor Frederick Fennell

John Philip Sousa
Liberty Bell,Riders for the Flag, Sound Off, The High School Cadets
Peter Mennin
Canzona
Vincent Persichetti
Psalm Op. 23
H. Owen Reed
La Fiesta Mexicana
Edwin Goldman
Illinois March, The Interlochen Bowl, Boy Scouts of America
Henry Fillmore
Americans We
Richard Rodgers
Guadalcanal March
Robert Russell Bennett
Symphonic Songs for Band

Although not currently available on compact disc you can buy these tracks at

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1st movement

2nd movement