Britsh Music at Beulah

 In June 1979 a small group of people (including Beulah's founder), with a passion for British music, met under the chairmanship of Peter Middleton, to discuss how such music may become better known. At that time, apart from a few favourites, very little British Music was broadcast or recorded. The meeting ended with the formation of the British Music Society which this month celebrates its 40th anniversary with a gala concert in St John's, Smith Sqaure, London.

This month we have created a page listing Beulah albums featuring British Music

New for June

Many music lovers miss the sound from vinyl pressings. Many others have yet to discover how pleasant the sound can be. Most of our albums are mastered from vinyl LP pressings and earlier recordings (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.

We highly recommend downloading from where you can download or stream in high quality, for the same price as iTunes medium quality.

New albums

"No, that’s not the Ronald Binge Elizabethan Serenadebut some of Julian Bream’s ground-breaking recordings on solo lute and with his eponymous consort. Styles change and neither the solo nor the consort music would be thought authentic now, but Bream’s recordings from this period remain enjoyable and interesting. Like all his output, they have remained only fitfully available on CD, so I’m pleased to have snapped most of them up when they were available in the RCA Julian Bream Edition. Even the multi-CD box set has gone, so the Beulah release is very welcome.

"Where the Beulah selection scores over all these is in presenting the lute music alongside the consort music, alternating on the first 15 tracks, with the rest devoted to Bream alone.On the other tracks, some of the consort pieces such as Can she excuse my wrongs?are made to sound almost like jazz."

Brian Wilson at Musicweb International

"Can recordings of Telemann from the early 1960s still sound stylish? The first three items first appeared in 1963 on the Cantate label and were joined on the super-budget Oryx label (£0.99) a decade later. Not only was that reissue excellent value –though the equivalentpricenow would be over £20 –the performances still sounded fine and they still do. Of course, there’s much more Telemann available now, with multi-CD releases from the likes of CPOalmost everyday occurrences, but I enjoyed the German Bach Soloists as much more than a blast from the past.

"The Triple Concerto, TWV53:E1, is familiar from more recent recordings, most recently from Florilegium on a Channel Classics recording which failed to appeal to Johan van Veen. He was rather more satisfied with the CPO recording on Volume 1 of their series of Telemann grand concertos for multiple instruments. You might expect direct comparison of the older recording on Beulah with the CPO to be a hands-down win for the newer version; in fact, though I liked the CPO better than my colleague, I’d find it hard to callthe scorebetween the two.In particular, the first movement is taken at a more andantepace on the older recordingwhilethe performancesthroughout the CPO are a little easy-going."

"The recording of the Hamburger Ebb’und Fluth, commonly known as his Water Music, presumably comes from a Concert Hall LP, conductor David Josefowitz’s own company. I take the Paris Baroque Orchestra to have been a scratch ensemble.

" Again, the playing is much sprightlierand more stylish than I had expected, even by comparison with Reinhard Goebel’s recording, the speed merchant toning down his impetuosity here, even in the final canarie representing the jolly boatmen. I wouldn’t recommend the Beulah as my first choice, but it can stand comparison with my favourites from the King’s Consort (Hyperion CDA66967) and the Akademie für alte Music Berlin (Harmonia Mundi HMC901917)."

Brian Wilson at Musicweb International

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What the Critics Say

"The music is rarely recorded; I believe these two accounts emanate from David Josefowitz’s own enterprising Concert Hall label which, among other things, brought Kurt Equiluz to prominence – he’s by far the best thing on this reissue. Neither work represents Beethoven at his best, as he is in the Choral Symphony and Missa Solemnis, but both are worth having in these forthright performances, that of Christus am Ölberge at least as good as the Vox Turnabout from which I got to know the work, also recorded in the early 1960s ."

Brian Wilson at Musicweb International

"I’m not sure when the Bashford items were recorded, but the ‘Captain’ offers a clue – the many later recordings were by Major and Lt. Colonel Rodney Bashford, so I’m guessing early 1960s. I welcome the fact that, as with the other items, the emphasis is on the music rather than its martial character.

"Vivian Dunn made recordings from the early 1940s; by 1963 when, I believe, this recording was made, he was Lt. Colonel Sir Vivian Dunn. He was as much a musician as a military man and his contributions to this release should appeal to lovers of classical music as much as to collectors of militaria."

Brian Wilson at Musicweb International

"We were not short of modern recordings of the two major works, the Piano Concerto and the Downland Suite but the Horsley recording of the former and the Foden premiere of the latter are rather special, so I have not attempted any comparisons.

"The Horsley recording of the concerto is otherwise available only on a 2-CD Warner download or from a label of doubtful validity. The recording has transferred well; the original was not of the best, even for 1957, and I don’t believe it was ever available in stereo, but it’s all perfectly tolerable. Horsley had long been associated with the work and he has its measure, with poetry and showmanship well balanced, as AR’s perceptive Gramophone original review noted.

"The sonata is of more recent provenance, made by Saga, though neither it nor The Holy Boy are exactly hi-fi. ...a rare opportunity to hear Tessa Robbins, one of the greatest violinists of her time, here very well supported by Alan Rowlands.

"Saga LPs had notoriously bad surfaces but they have been well tamed here, as have those of the 1932 Downland Suite, which has come up amazingly well for its age, bright and chipper and still competitive with Black Dyke (Chandos) and the very few other recordings of the band version. items, the emphasis is on the music rather than its martial character."

Brian Wilson at Musicweb International

"The Piano Sonata was recorded by Marguerite Wolff, one of whose specialities was championing the music of Bliss and Malcolm Williamson, for the obscure Academy label (ACM1). The performance is idiomatic but I didn’t find myself coming to terms with the music as much as I had hoped and the recording is rather harsh.

"These recordings of the Quintets, originally released by EMI subsidiary World Record Club, are otherwise available only as part of an 11-CD box set of Melos Ensemble recordings (Warner Icons). Attractive and inexpensive as that is, the Beulah release offers the recordings in a more manageable format. The performances were supervised and approved by the composer. The music is more immediate in appeal, though by no means facile, and the recording has come up well in the new transfer...these quintets are well worth getting to know and the Beulah is a good way to do so."

Brian Wilson at Musicweb International

"Those in search of the Elgar and VW will find this outstandingly good value. To the contents of the classic 19621 recordings Beulah have added lively accounts of the Sullivan and Arnell – neither anywhere near the quality of the main works, but not exactly over-recorded: the only other current account of the Arnell (Dutton) is of the complete ballet.

"The Beulah transfer of these classic recordings which deserve to be preserved for all time is very good. How could I not award it ‘recommended’ status? Only those averse to the trolley bus on the cover, now something as classic as these recordings, need say no.

" Each of the four main works is music to die for and these de-luxe recordings remain far and away the benchmarks for them. If you needed proof that the Tallis Fantasia is even more ethereal than the popular The Lark Ascending, this is it."

Brian Wilson at Musicweb International