The eminent Dutch conductor Eduard van Beinum described his relationship with orchestral musicians as ‘first among equals’. He said of his work ‘One must certainly not by tyrannical. A conductor must immerse himself in the possibilities of each and every orchestra member and bring everything out of them.’ It was a huge shock, when during a rehearsal of Brahms’ First Symphony on 13 April 1959, van Beinum suffered a fatal heart attack on the podium in the Concertgebouw at the age of just 58. His qualities as a musician had perhaps not been fully appreciated during his lifetime, but after his death, his recordings allow us to re-evaluate his impeccable musical intuition, his good taste and the spontaneity of his music-making. Collected here in one edition that predominately features the two orchestras he was Principal Conductor of — the Concertgebouworkest & London Philharmonic Orchestra — are the complete recordings he made for both Decca and Philips.
Highlights include:
o A sparkling interpretation of Beethoven’s ballet music to The Creature of Prometheus with the LPO
o Brahms’ Symphony cycle recorded with the Concertgebouworkest – a radically modern approach for the time they were made
o Lauded recordings of Ravel’s Rapsodie espagnole (1946) ‘Without question, this is the best recording we have had of this pungently evocative work.’ — Gramophone; Boléro and La Valse and Debussy’s La Mer, Stravinsky’s Le Sacre du Printemps (1946) ‘A truly brilliant recording, bringing out more of the score than I should have thought possible’ — Gramophone
o Berlioz’ Symphonie fantastique (one of his most celebrated recordings full of incisive precision and spontaneous explosive abandon)
o Reference recordings of Bruckner’s 7, 8 & 9th Symphonies – “Bruckner is my bread and butter” said Van Beinum
o Diapason d’Or award-winning recordings of Mendelssohn’s Symphony No.4 & A Midsummer Night’s Dream (CO) & Hebrides Overture (LPO)
o A series of 78rpm recordings made for ‘Dutch Decca’, Telefunken & Deutsche Grammophon, including many works van Beinum never recorded commercially, such as Richard Strauss’s Don Juan and Smetana’s Vltava – all released for the first time in nearly 70 years, in new hi-res transfers made especially for this collection
o Bonus Audio documentary feature produced by Jon Tolansky, with commentary by a number of musicians who worked with Eduard van Beinum
o 102pp book (English/Dutch/French/German) with essays by music historian Niek Nelissen and Jon Tolansky
