The Compact Collection

Sometimes I wonder whether the phenomenon of the "Beecham story" has had a negative effect on the reputation of Britain's most prodigiously gifted 20th-century conductor. True, humour and wit were genuine attributes of Sir Thomas Beecham (pictured left), but so was a deep-rooted love for repertoire ranging from Handel through Tchaikovsky and Wagner to Delius.

In the best of Beecham's records you'll encounter an artistry that in its attention to detail, exquisite taste andfeeling compares with the very best in Europe or America at the time. So don't be surprised if, when you hear the Schubert volume in Sony's ongoing series Beecham: The Original CBS Recordings, the Unfinished emerges as even more affectionately and dramatically played than the first two symphonies. Received opinion would have you believe that the earlier works, being less "great", would benefit from being handled by a man noted for making second-rate music sound first-rate. How utterly stupid these preconceptions are! Of course the early symphonies are charming, the Second especially, but the Unfinished is unforgettably insightful (SMK87876).

Likewise the Brahms Violin Concerto, where the young Isaac Stern grapples manfully with a piece that he would later perform with greater understanding, but which Beecham conducts with consummate skill. The coupling (on SMK87799) is Sibelius's Violin Concerto, typically piquant in its instrumental voicing.

The two bigger symphonic pieces in this latest Beecham batch from Sony have minor cuts, Goldmark's symphonic poem Rustic Wedding in its first movement variations and Tchaikovsky's Little Russian Second Symphony in its finale. Neither suffers unduly, principally because both readings have such strongly etched personalities. The Tchaikovsky (SMK87875), which opens to the seamless horn playing of Dennis Brain, is at its most beguiling in the tongue-in-cheek second movement. Here as elsewhere the pointing and shaping of individual phrases raises a smile, the magnificent 1950s Royal Philharmonic responding to the merest flick of a Beecham eyebrow with stylishly turned solos. Tchaikovsky's Little Russian comes coupled with a broad and brightly-coloured Nutcracker Suite, whereas the Goldmark has some "adapted" Handel for company in Beecham's jaunty suite The Faithful Shepherd (Sony SMK87780).

Beecham was famed for ending his concerts with unannounced "lollipops". Chabrier's España and Massenet's "The Last Sleep of the Virgin" were among the most popular and both turn up, superbly played in October 1956, on the latest Beecham volume in the BBC's Legends series (BBCL 4113-2). The palpable tension that Beecham generates during Chabrier's stormy Gwendoline Overture; the sustained beauty in the slower passages of Delius's Brigg Fair; the way the Adagio of Mozart's Divertimento K131 ebbs and flows; the rapture of Berlioz's "Royal Hunt and Storm" from Les Troyens – allserve to perpetuate a legend that helped to define British music-making for the century.