Beecham Recordings of Early Schubert Symphonies

Sir Thomas Beecham was a man of strong likes and dislikes. The conductor was cold to the music of Bach, but very warm to Handel, and his love for the music of Mozart and Delius was famous. Less known was his affection for the earlier, less heroic symphonies of Franz Schubert. He recorded some of these works in the 1930s and later in the 1950s. There was something in the buoyant youthful cheerfulness in these earlier symphonies that appealed to the genial side of Beecham. We'll hear some of these recordings.