On April 24, 1960, the 80-year-old Sir Thomas Beecham gave the last concert he conducted with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in London at the Festival Hall. The last work from this historic program was the "Bacchanale" from the opera "Samson et Dalila" by Camille Saint-Saens. What the audience did not know during their rapturous applause was that this performance marked Beecham's departure from the London concert stage. He suffered a cerebral thrombosis in June 1960 and never conducted again; he died on March 8, 1961. This historic release also includes live recordings of Saint-Saens' First Cello Concerto and Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's "Scheherazade". The audio restoration was once again carried out by the renowned sound engineer Lani Spahr, whose work was recently honored with four 'Gramophone Magazine Editor's Choice Awards' awards. Saint-Saëns' first cello concerto from 1958 features Ukrainian-born soloist Mischel Cherniavsky. Mischel Cherniavsky came from a family of nine musically gifted children and played with two of his brothers in the Cherniavsky Trio from 1901 to 1934, after which he lived mainly in London and France. The live performance of Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade on this release was given at the Royal Festival Hall on March 21, 1957 at the Royal Festival Hall. What Rimsky-Korsakov described as the "various fairy-tale wonders" he had in mind when he composed the work comes across in Beecham's live performance with a freshness and brilliance that makes the work an unforgettable experience.