COMPOSERS: Bantock,Bax,Berners,Delius,German
LABELS: EMI
WORKS: Orchestral works by Bantock, Bax, Berners, German, Delius
PERFORMER: Royal Philharmonic Orchestra/Beecham
CATALOGUE NO: EMI 909 9152 (6 CDS)
Beecham’s English Collection is unmissable: a single disc of Bantock, Bax, Berners and German, and five CDs of his beloved Delius in peerless performances. There’s the complete 1948 A Village Romeo and Juliet, and Delius’s Norwegian tone poem Song of the High Hills, from 1946; one of the first recordings made by Beecham’s new postwar orchestra, and they already play as though they adore him. Andrew McGregor