Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Sir Thomas Beecham

Richard Strauss: Don Juan op. 20; Der Bürger als Edelmann-Suite op. 60; Macbeth op. 23; Tanz der sieben Schleier aus Salome op. 54; Till Eulenspiegel op. 28 

SOMM Recordings is delighted to announce the first release on disc of three works by Richard Strauss conducted by Sir Thomas Beecham with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra captured live in London’s Royal Festival Hall.

In a meeting of kindred spirits and musical minds, Beecham and Strauss enjoyed a long and mutually admiring relationship over nearly four decades. Thomas Beecham Conducts Richard Strauss follows SOMM’s acclaimed Thomas Beecham Conducts Sibelius and again features recordings newly restored and remastered by Lani Spahr.

The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra was founded in 1946 by Beecham to inject new energy and new ideas into British orchestral life. A decade later, this disc shows them at their finest. Completely new to the catalogue is the six-part Suite taken from Strauss’s incidental music to Le bourgeois gentilhomme, the erotic ‘Dance of the Seven Veils’ from Salome, and the only known recording of Beecham conducting Macbeth.

Completing the disc are two signature tone poems, Don Juan and Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks, recorded live in early 1955 and newly re- mastered from an earlier SOMM release (SOMM-BEECHAM 31).

The disc has been curated by Jon Tolansky, who provides insightful and authoritative booklet notes.

MusicWeb International hailed Thomas Beecham Conducts Sibelius (ARIADNE 5013) as “a major addition to [Beecham’s] discography” and “a most important release”. Audiophile Audition’s five-star review declared it “heartily recommended”, while BBC Music Magazine described it as “a blazing performance”.

SOMM’s ground-breaking The Beecham Collection spans 24 volumes, many of them with the RPO. It includes the partnership’s coupling of Sibelius’s Fourth and Sixth Symphonies (SOMM-BEECHAM 18) and their earliest known recordings, dating from 1946, featuring Wagner, Mendelssohn, Mozart’s Symphony No. 40 and Schumann’s Piano Concerto with Moura Lympany the soloist (SOMM-BEECHAM 19).