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Sir Thomas Beecham made surprisingly few recordings of music by Beethoven, despite being one of the most recorded musicians of his era. This week selects four of those relative rarities - Symphonies Nos. 2, 6, 7 and 8 - all recorded in the 1950s with his Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.
The recordings are split neatly in two, divided by the move from mono to stereo recording, with two in each category. All have benefited hugely from XR remastering, bringing significant improvements in sound quality - most especially heard in the 'Pastoral' and Eighth, recorded in 1951/2.