Welcome to Beulah 1993-2023

Beulah logo

contents

serach site

[W3C HTML 4.01]

Last 12 months

February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December
January
February
March
April

Follow Beulah on Facebook
E-mail me
 updates
it's private
change log
powered by
ChangeDetection

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  for  the  same  price  that others charge for mp3 – in some cases that’s less than full bit-rate mp3." Brian Wilson at Music Web International 


Reviewer's Recommendations



1PDR66 Mahler Das Leid von der Erde

qobuz

spotify

deezer

David McDade's reviews this performance of Das Lied von der Erde conducted by Eduard van Beinum and fetauirng the wonderful voice of Nan Merriman.

"Like London buses, Beulah reissues of Mahler’s Das Lied von Erde have come along in a threesome. They transport us back to a time when releases of Mahler’s music were still relatively rare. Of the three just put out by the indefatigable folk at Beulah, Walter in Vienna with an ailing Ferrier is the most, perhaps undeservedly, celebrated. After that, Reiner in Chicago is at least well known if chronically underrated (review). This present release from van Beinum is probably the most overlooked of the three yet might well have a claim to being the finest of them all. "From its confident opening onwards, it is obvious that the Amsterdam Mahler tradition is not limited to Mengelberg and Haitink. Conductor and orchestra have this music imprinted in their musical DNA. The contrast to Reiner in this opening song is startling. We are most certainly in old Europe. Beulah have rounded out some of the shriller edges to the sound compared to its 2018 Decca version and I have to say that suits the more blended sound Van Beinum coaxes from the Concertgebouw. "Van Beinum and Merriman bring before our ears the musical equivalent of a Chinese landscape painting.

"There is a tannic dryness to the Concertgebouw woodwind which has always suited Mahler’s music.
"The great glory of this performance is Merriman’s singing of the Ewig passage with which the work closes. Any lover of great singing will be enraptured. .. Typically of this performance there is little grandiloquent or operatic about her manner and the Concertgebouw seem as captivated by her as I was.

"The more rounded, mellow sound that Beulah produce on this release has, to my ears, a transformative effect wholly in keeping with Van Beinum‘s conception of the music. This is a warm hearted, generous, sometimes slightly reticent Das Lied which, if the listener is patient, delivers a genuinely moving climax at the end."

Read the full review.


New for May


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.

We highly recommending streaming at qobuz where you can download or stream in high quality, for the same price as iTunes medium quality.




1PDR72 Music for a Coronation


Coming soon



1PDR74 Music at sea


amazon

apple music

spotify

qobuz

deezer

Thirty Years Of Beulah

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

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 came from water emitted by 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.

2PD9

2pd9

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

amazon

spotify

qobuz

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


amazon

apple music

spotify

qobuz

deezer

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

1ps95

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

Symphony No.3 in F Major, Op.90

amazon

spotify

qobuz

deezer

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

amazon

apple music

spotify

qobuz

deezer