Lord Berners: Triumph of Neptune Suite (Beecham, 1937)

Lord Berners: The Triumph of Neptune - Ballet Suite
London Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Sir Thomas Beecham
Recorded December 20, 1937, in EMI's Studio No. 1, Abbey Road, London, on Columbia 78-rpm matrices CAX 8145 through CAX 8148. Issued in February, 1938, as Columbia LX 697 and LX 698. Soon afterwards, the US issue appeared as Columbia Masterworks Set X-92 (records 69142-D and 69143-D); this is the source for my transfer.
The Suite, as presented here, is in seven sections:
1. Schottische
2. Hornpipe (at 2:18)
3. Polka (The Sailor's Return) (at 3:53) (Robert Alva, bass)
4. Harlequinade (at 6:35)
5. Dance of the Fairy Princess (at 7:53)
6. Sunday Morning (Intermezzo) (at 9:58)
7. Apotheosis (at 11:56)
Lord Berners (Gerald Hugh Tyrwhitt-Wilson, 1883-1950) became the 14th Baron Berners in 1918. This ballet score, written in 1926 for Diaghilev's "Ballet Russes" to a story by Sacheverell Sitwell, is his most famous work. Such information about it as I have been able to glean from the Internet leads me to conclude that knowledge of the background of the score adds little to appreciating the music, which is sheer fun from beginning to end. (It might be worth noting, however, that the Polka is twice interrupted by a bass voice drunkenly singing "The Last Rose of Summer" - the returning sailor of the subtitle, perhaps?) Not even the order the movements are played in seems to matter, as long as the sequence concludes with the "Apotheosis" which is clearly a finale in character. Beecham made an LP recording of the suite in 1952, with the Philadelphia Orchestra, adding two additional movements ("Cloudland" and "The Frozen Forest") and presenting everything in a different order than here - but that order is also different from David Lloyd-Jones' Marco Polo CD of the complete ballet. For this reason, I have chosen not to alter the sequence of movements as presented on the 78-rpm discs.

[@charlestimberlake5522]

Lord Berners wrote interesting music, such as this. The transfer of the 1937 Beecham recording is fine. This is a different arrangement of pieces from the ballet found in another posting on TH-cam.