Jennifer Vyvyan was one of the most revered sopranos of her generation. Her career was particularly associated with Britten operas, for which she premiered many roles. But the scope of her talent was particularly wide, and she also excelled in early music and sacred works. In this recording from her prime of Beethoven’s Mass in C she teams up with Richard Lewis, Monica Sinclair and Marian Nowakowski.

There was a time, not long ago, when Baroque scores were treated as a folio of performance suggestions, not as the letter of the law. Performers felt free to add music or (more often) to take it away, and to do other things which were quite different from what the composer originally had in mind. Sir Thomas Beecham had no qualms about performing surgery on the music of George Frideric Handel, a composer he absolutely adored. No disrespect was intended. In fact, Beecham loved Handel so much, he wanted everyone else to love him too. That meant making him more palatable for modern tastes – bigger and leaner, at the same time.

SOMM Recordings is thrilled to announce the first release on disc of the only known live recording of Sir Thomas Beecham conducting Sibelius’s Symphony No.1 with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra to mark the orchestra’s 75th anniversary. The disc has been curated by Tolansky, the original founder of the Music Performance Research Centre. The archive was created in 1987 to preserve the heritage of public performances which included among its collection the Sibelius First Symphony. In 2001 the archive was renamed Music Preserved and transferred to the Borthwick Institute at the University of York. The Symphony, together with Tolansky’s other discovery, Scènes historiques have been brilliantly restored by acclaimed engineer Lani Spahr.

The most comprehensive edition devoted to Gioachino Rossini marking his 150th anniversary.
Born in 1792, Rossini was the most popular opera composer of his time. Although he retired from the Opera scene in 1829, he continued to compose in other genres, including sacred music, piano and chamber works. He did gather his late works under the ironic title Péchés de vieillesse (Sins of Old Age), which veils a true collection of masterworks.

This must be one of the most important historical documents ever to appear from previously unavailable archives. Much as we admire and praise Davis’s Berlioz (whose latest Trojans we reviewed last month)‚ Beecham has to be at least his peer on this and much other evidence. His arresting‚ inspiriting and brilliantly crafted performance here is a thing to marvel at in its understanding of the true Berlioz spirit. He persuades his newly formed RPO and the BBC Theatre Chorus of the day into giving quite thrilling accounts of their music that not even indifferent sound can mar. Beecham was to have returned‚ at Covent Garden‚ to the grand masterpiece in 1960‚ but that was not to be: a severe stroke prevented what would surely have been his crowning service to Berlioz right at the end of his distinguished career.