Serenade from The Fair Maid of Perth (Bizet) Richard Lewis

This extract comes from a live 1949 performance released on BEULAH (12PD23) compact disc.Available in all good record stores or direct from Beulah at
http://www.eavb.co.uk/lp/12pd23.html
You can also download tracks from iTunes. Use the link above and select iTunes.

The strong cast reflects the best of British singers of the day. It includes: * Gwen Catley * Lorely Dyer * Richard Lewis * Trefor Jones * Norman Walker * Owen Brannigan
John Quinn writes for Classical Music on the Web: There is some surface noise from the acetates but overall the sound quality is good. The notes include a comment made by Philip Hope-Wallace when the broadcast was repeated in 1979 to mark the centenary of Beecham's birth. He wrote: "the beguiling melodies are exactly the sort of light music which Beecham could give a delicacy and vitality all its own. It is a lovely recording which does not sound its age of nearly 30 years ago." Twenty-two years further on those comments remain entirely apt. ...
...admirers of Bizet should snap up this issue while they can. The same applies to devotees of Beecham, the more so since this is a 'live' performance caught on the wing and a splendid example of his art in music to which he was so well suited.
Two disc set 134 minutes.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• classical

[paddington3]

I heard the original live broadcast from which this recording was made. I was fourteen and interested in jazz, R&B, pop etc. so I was completely surprised to find that I was fascinated by it. However, I knew nothing about it, nor could I find anything about it (no web searches back then), but it lurked in my memory all of those intervening years. Then, one day, about a year ago, I searched Youtube and wonder of wonders, it was there. Eureka. Now I butcher it in the shower.

[A60stock]

@paddington3 Do buy the double album you will find it worthwhile. Any good record store should be able to get it for you from our distributors Priory Records or buy direct from them,.

[jlcel0818ya]

This is brilliant and very beautiful. A rare find!!! However, according to Bizet scholars, this version of the serenade is not what Bizet intended. In the Jolie Fille de Perth suite put together by Maestro Beecham, the second number, also called serenade, contains the middle section of this serenade.

[A60stock]

Beecham had a habit of changing opera arias around so as to improve dramatic effect, at least that was what he thought he was doing though sometimes it was to get to the pub before it closed. There were no scholars around in his time to point out that reshaping a composer's work was a bad idea.

[webrarian]

I have heard this recording before but never in such excellent sound. What beautiful singing from Richard Lewis, and what a beautiful sound from the oboist. Who was he?

[A60stock]

Terence MacDonagh was oboist of the RPO at the time along with Jack Brymer (clarinet) Gwydion Brooke (bassoon) and the horn soloist is Dennis Brain. In 1947 Beecham engaged Victor Olof to put the RPO together. Olof raided the National Symphony Orchestra which had been formed during the war using young musicians serving in military bands and used as a contract orchestra by Decca for which Olof worked as their chief classical producer.

[oncelostmain]

The best version of the serenade I ever heard

[lskarin]

Also check out The Great Moments From Die Fledermaus. He's there with Anna Moffo.

[lskarin]

He was a British tenor who did stuff with Glyndebourne. I have few recordings but do have him doing Nanki-Poo on an Angel recording.

[chrisandeb]

suzie - did you ever find a Heddle Nash version of this beautiful song ?

[GylchrisSprauve]

I know this aria in the French version. It is one of the absolutely most beautiful tenor arias from the French lyric rep. Beautifully rendered by both singer and orchestra. Thanks for posting.

[NyYangMinh]

This song is well known to　Japanese students.But the poem is not a translated one. Our version: A boy collects nuts in autumn alone. Last autumn he collected with his father. He has passed away. He remembers father's advices and misses him a lot. It is such a sad song, isn't it?