Beecham was no Brahmsian but he loved the Second Symphony and was for the best part of half a century one of its most persuasive interpreters. He first conducted it in 1912 and in 1936 made a much admired recording with the newly­founded LPO. Reviewing Beecham’s stereo remake in these columns in June 1960‚ William Mann recalled: ‘I grew up with his 78 set and remember it with keen pleasure. It was light and sunny and full of charm‚ though perfectly strong; some people probably thought it a reading that lacked nobility’. The remake‚ recorded in 1958­59‚ was not as well liked as the 78rpm original. When the CD transfer appeared (EMI‚ 4/90 – nla) Alan Sanders complained of ‘structural anchors not being set very deep’ and ‘the almost vulgar conclusion’. This live 1956 Edinburgh Festival performance is superior in almost every respect to that laboriously assembled studio version. According to Graham Melville­Mason’s splendid note­cum­memoir‚ the performance left the festival audience flabbergasted‚ walking on air. In the studio‚ the rip­roaring conclusion did seem contrived but here it electrifies sense. If there is a whiff of the circus about the Edinburgh performance – Beecham audibly urging his players on like a shiny­hatted ringmaster‚ the final chord sounding defiantly on even as it drowns in a sea of applause – it is largely to do with the fact that the performance is live. The actual reading is exemplary: a thrilling denouement thrillingly realised. As for the earlier movements‚ here Beecham’s reading is everything William Mann remembered it as being – sunny and full of charm but also‚ by 1956‚ wise and wondering‚ too. I still love the old LPO version‚ which sounds a million dollars in Dutton Laboratories’ 1995 CD transfer‚ but this BBC Legends release is its perfect complement. The mono sound is first­rate. I found the Beethoven less interesting‚ though this Maida Vale broadcast is every bit as vital as the generally well­respected EMI studio recording (8/58 – nla) which Beecham and the RPO made that same winter. Beecham was as hostile to the majority of Beethoven’s symphonies as he was to all but one of Brahms’s. The neglected Second was his only real favourite but it is a less interesting work than Brahms’s Second and yielded up fewer treasures to Beecham in his role of affectionate iconoclast.