Welcome to Beulah 1993-2023

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Beulah quoted

"These are careful transfers which make the most of the material, whereas I suspect that some others just stick an LP or 78s on the turntable and give us what comes out the other end. Beulah’s results are comparable with the fine transfers which Naxos Historical offer. " Brian Wilson at Music Web International

"The Beulah record label has always been one of the most idiosyncratic, and therefore perhaps most interesting, of reissue marques. While the basic character of Beulah remains the same as in its Compact Disc days, the range of its present catalogue, driven now by the ease of downloading, has been extended in remarkable fashion. Browsing the Beulah catalogue is now rather like being in a 78rpm record shop: there are plenty of recordings of short pieces available to whet your appetite for either repertoire or artist, while at the same time there are numerous full length works available if you wish to consolidate your collection with, for instance, major symphonies. All of Beulah's transfers, as might be expected of a distinguished reissue label, are of very high quality." David Patmore writing in Classical Recordings Quarterly

"Beulah releases are available from other suppliers but qobuz offer them in lossless sound" Brian Wilson at Music Web International 


Reviewer's Recommendations



5PDR20 Twentieth Century  Classics Volume 5

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David McDade's review of Twentieth Centrury Classics Volume 5

" It would seem inevitable that a label like Beulah was going to be drawn to the classic recordings from the Mercury label which have a claim to be some of the finest of the LP era. The selection of works on this new Beulah release straddles two different Mercury LPs and it demonstrates just how adventurous their recorded repertoire could be.

" Kubelik, a composer himself, had a fine pedigree in the music of his century, a fact sometimes obscured by his recorded legacy being dominated by nineteenth century composers. The casual listener will not be surprised at how good his Mozart with Curzon or his Beethoven with Serkin is but may be surprised to learn just how good a foil he provided for Alfred Brendel in Schoenberg’s thorny piano concerto. It is worth pointing out that the story goes that he was forced out of the Chicago job on account of performing too many modern scores.

"An interesting point of comparison is between this Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta and the more celebrated later recording with the same orchestra by Fritz Reiner. They could hardly be more different. Reiner, the Hungarian, is more hard edged, rhythms driven and ensemble so sharp you could cut yourself on it. The Czech, Kubelik, is more concerned with atmosphere and sounds the more Hungarian of the two. An oversimplification admittedly but there is something in seeing Reiner as the modernist and Kubelik as sticking closely to the folk music roots of this music. Reiner’s is, rightfully, considered one of the greatest recordings of all time but the surprise is how little ground this Kubelik version has to concede to it.

"The Bartók is positively populist compared to the other two works that make up the programme. The Bloch is a real rarity. Written in 1925, it has suffered the neglect that has been the fate of a lot of the then fashionable taste for the neoclassical. It is a likeable, warm hearted work.

"Kubelik always had a special way of coaxing a unique sound from the strings and he is at his wizardly best in the Bloch. What could be dull slabs of string chord work resonate with trenchant intensity, each part clearly audible yet seamlessly integrated. "

"Beulah save the best for last with an absolutely stupefyingly good version of the Schoenberg Op16. This work represents in many ways one of the high points of the composer’s expressionist phase before the development of the 12 tone system....Even in the good but necessarily limited sound of this 1953 recording, the colours glow in all their menacing wonder. The way Kubelik maintains the febrile climate across five very different pieces is a remarkable achievement and the precision of the playing matches him at every step.

"It is often the case that recordings that always sounded good respond best to attempts at sonic restoration and so it is here. Mercury were always an audiophile label and the results of their approach sound surprisingly modern to my ears. Beulah’s love affair with this classic era of the LP continues with this release. For all the famously stated desire to capture the ‘living presence’ of the orchestra what I hear is the experience of listening to an album on a turntable with everything possible being done to maximise that experience. Given this view of these albums, Beulah’s methods seem particularly appropriate.

"Do have a listen to these stunning performances."

Read the full review.


New for July


Many music lovers miss the sound from vinyl pressings. Many others have yet to discover how great the sound can be. Most of our albums are mastered from vinyl LP pressings and earlier recordings (generally before 1953) from 78 rpm discs. It is our ability to recreate, in the digital age, the sound from the disc era that many of our customers find most enjoyable.

Unlike modern digital recordings tracks in our albums do contain some distortion, and the occasional surface noises, but for many listeners these "defects" are soon forgotten.

Our albums are available from many download and streaming sites.



2PDR75 Charles Aznavour Terre Nouvelle


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2PS41 The Squadronaires Flying home


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1PDR80 Ambrose night and day


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1PDR81 Ted heath Live in London and New York


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1PDR82 Wilhelm Backhaus plays Beethoven and Schumann


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1PDR83 Beethoven: Symphony No. 9


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Thirty Years Of Beulah

To mark our thirtieth anniversary, each month we will feature here an album from our back catalogue.

July

Beulah does have a representative collection of cinema and theatre organs among its releases.

Listen to Cinema Organ Favourites 

June

Ever popular is Glenn Miller. We have, across 13 albums, produced over 250 tracks of this famous band recorded between 1938 and 1944. The albums are all listed on our Jazz page

Listen to Glenn Miller playing "Be Happy" 

May

Although the first Beulah releases did not appear until July 1993, Beualh was created at meeting held in May 1993 at audio post production house, Chop Em Out in London W10. Attending the meeting were Bernie Spratt and Simon Heyworth representing Chop em Out, Malcolm Walker former editor of The Gramophone, David Michell an avid collector of 78 rpm records and Barry Coward, proprietor of Film Archive Management and Entertainment (FAME).

The outcome of this meeting  was that Beulah operated from FAME's base located in Henderson's Film Laboratory in South Norwood. On 4 July 1993 a devastating fire at the laboratory resulted in the loss of original negatives of feature films, notably from Ealing Studios. However Beulah was located on the top floor where the damage was from water emitted from fire hoses, so we carried on with the planned lauch of Beulah.

In May 1937 the Coronation of King George VI was  held and the Coronation Aldershot Tattoo that year featured an epligue that paid homage to the new King. In 2020 we published an album of recordings made on the Rushmore Arena of the Tattoos from 1932 to1938. These events featured over 1,000 bandsmen.

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Live recordings made at the annual Aldershot Military  Tattoos 1932-8

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April

We feature British Jazz and Blues in our series entiteld Jazz Britannica.

Here extracts from the first volume featuring Alexis Corner, George Mely, Cleo Laine

Go to our Jazz page for all our jazz albums

March

In time for Alfred Brendel's 90th birthday we issued three albums of his early recordings. David McDade reveiwed all three albums. Here is an extract from his review of Volume 2

"A first glance at the listing on this second volume of Beulah’s series of the early recordings by Alfred Brendel would suggest we are in very unfamiliar territory in terms of the great Austrian pianist’s usual repertoire.

"It turns out that Mussorgsky’s collection of curios and grand visions, based on similarly offbeat paintings by Hartmann, suits Brendel to a tee. "

"Beulah’s sound throughout elegantly walks a tightrope between, on the one hand, bright but brittle and, on the other, resonant but cavernous and booming. In the Mussorgsky in particular, astonishingly, they find a natural sounding ambience in which the piano sound sits, which gives proceedings a real presence. Brendel’s distinctive almost staccato sound is a hard one for remastering to get right and I think Beulah get it just about spot on."

Read the full review.

Hear "The Great Gate of Kiev"

2PS86

2ps86 Alfred brendel early years volume 2

Alfred Brendel Early Years  2

Mussorgsky Pictures at an Exhibition

Stravinsky Three Movements from Petroucka

Balakirev Islamey

Liszt Harmonies poetiques et religieuses No 1 and No.4


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February

Decca, in the LP era, was famed for its sound. Our album of George Szell conducting Brahms has good examples of the Decca sound with the Piano Concerto recordred in stereo in London's Kingsway Hall and the Symphony recorded in mono in the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam.

Szell was a perfectionist and Curzon was a mercurial pianist. Ken Wilkinson's balance in both recordings is a revelation. In both venues Wilkinsion had the orchestra located in the body of the hall rather than on the platform.

Hear extracts from both perfomances

1PS95

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Szell Conducts Brahms
Piano Concerto No.1 in D minor Op. 15 with Clifford  Curzon

Symphony No.3 in F Major, Op.90

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January

The first Beulah releases centred on recordings made in London's Crystal Palace. The Crystal Palace, located at the top of Sydenham Hill, had an auditorium that could seat 60,000 people and accomodtate a choir and orchestra of 3,000.

From 1900 until the building was destroyed by fire in November 1936 it was the venue for the National Brass Band Championships sponsored by railway compaines. The final event took place just a month before the fatal fire.

Hear a truncated version of the William Tell Oveture from our Brass at The Crystal Palace album.

2PD2

1pd2

Brass at the Crystal Palace Champions
All the brass band tracks recorded in the Crystal Palace originally relased on 1PD1 and 1PD2.

Adesta Fideles Meditation, Abide With Me, Death or Glory, Mandora March, Gleneagles March, Champion Medley Nos 1,2 and 3, May Day Revels, William Tell Overture, Sing a Song, Le  prophete Grand March, Messiah Amen, Severn Suite, Downland Suite, Kenilworth

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