All *very* interesting, gentlemen, but I must put in a word for Toscanini's
Bruckner 7th. It is a grand performance, the unfortunate gaps
notwithstanding.

clark


On Thu, May 8, 2014 at 7:58 AM, Loftus Becker <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> David’s quite right, I think, that Beecham never recorded (and probably
> never conducted) Bruckner or Mahler, but in his time not many conductors
> outside of Germany did (Toscanini never conducted Mahler, whose music he
> hated, and did only a couple of Bruckner symphonies, once or twice; there’s
> a NY Phil recording of the Seventh, missing chunks at change of record).
> Beecham was a champion of Richard Strauss when Strauss was controversial —
> I think he conducted the British premieres of Salome (censored, though to
> his horror some of the singers reverted to the original language; nobody
> else noticed) and maybe Elektra, symphonies by Kurt Atterberg and of course
> he was a great champion of Delius.
>
> I think he did conduct some Stravinsky in the teens or 20s when Monteux
> (who was supposed to do it) fell ill, but I don’t think he liked it much,
> and he definitely wasn’t fond of the music of Schoenberg and Webern. And
> yes, his Wagner was pretty impressive — rumors are still around that
> there’s a complete Ring from Covent Garden (the end of Act I and much of
> Act II has been released, and of course the stunning Hagen’s Watch with
> Ludwig Weber in his prime) lurking somewhere in the EMI archives or maybe
> the collection of Lord Harewood.
>
> On May 8, 2014, at 12:00 AM, ARSCLIST automatic digest system <
> [log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> > From: Clark Johnsen <[log in to unmask]>
> > Subject: Re: Stokowski and percussion instruments
> >
> > What about Wagner? Beecham left a complete recording of Tristan, much of
> > Meistersinger, and numerous excerpts that are all done in grand style.
> > According to Wiki he performed all the operas except Parsifal numerous
> > times and to great acclaim.
>