Australian Romantic & Classical Orchestra
Rachael Beesley, conductor; Jacqueline Porter, soprano
Digital only
ARCOCD-003
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What a blessing to classical music lovers is the Australian Romantic & Classical Orchestra, the brain child of the late Richard Gill, and now led by co-artistic director, conductor, director and concertmaster, Rachael Beesley. Their latest offering, to date in digital download only, features the Serenade on Swedish Melodies by Max Bruch; Benjamin Britten’s Les Illuminations; and Tchaikovsky’s Souvenir de Florence. Carefully chosen as prime examples of romantic lyricism, one of the most exciting things about these offerings is the decision to return to the female voice for Britten’s Illuminations. Originally written for a soprano friend of his in 1940, when he began his long affair with tenor Peter Pears, he abandoned the soprano for the tenor voice in subsequent performances and so it has remained ever since, until once again rescued by ARCO. As Britten’s biographer David Matthews rightly remarked “so much more sensuous.”

Max Bruch was a keen collector of folk songs and wrote three serenades for full orchestra based on melodies from Russia, Sweden and Venice, ARCO open their recital with the Swedish Melodies, which, though written in 1904 largely disappeared from view until 1956. I believe the original manuscript has still not been discovered to this day, making this recording all the more important. The playing is at all times tight and well-disciplined, especially in the fourth movement andante, which can so easily become slushy and sentimental.

The final work in the trio is Tchaikovsky’s Souvenir of Florence, which contains in the slow second movement one of the Russian Master’s loveliest melodies introduced by the first violin and taken up by the cello, played superbly by Rachael Beesley and Daniel Yeadon respectively. Again a master class in disciplined playing. The piece ends with an allegro con brio which keeps the whole orchestras as busy as a hive of bees and never ceases to amaze as the melodies are far more Russian than Italian. The applause at the end is more than richly deserved.

All in all a wonderful collection of the work of three masters of romantic lyricism. Hopefully they will appear one day soon on a CD, so much more permanent than the ephemerality of digital downloads.

– Michael Morton-Evans