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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  ; 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
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 where you can download or stream in high quality,
for
the
same price as iTunes medium quality.
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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.
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.
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2PD9
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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"
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2PS86
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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
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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.
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2PD2
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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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