Weber: Bassoon Concerto (Gwydion Brooke)

Gwydion Brooke

Generally considered the doyen of English bassoonists, and one of the great English wind players of the 20th century, Gwydion Brooke (1912-2005), or, to use his birth name, Frederick James Gwydion Holbrooke, was the son of composer Joseph Holbrooke; he was also the brother-in-law of another great English wind player, clarinetist Reginald Kell.  Beecham hand-picked him when organizing his Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in 1946, adding him to a distinguished wind lineup that included Dennis Brain, which collectively became known as the "Royal Family."  Brooke, in fact, recorded the Mozart Bassoon Concerto with Beecham in 1958.  But before he joined the RPO, he was a member of Malcolm Sargent's Liverpool Philharmonic, with which he made this first recording of Weber's Bassoon Concerto:

Weber: Bassoon Concerto in F Major, Op. 75
Gwydion Brooke with the Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra
conducted by Sir Malcolm Sargent
Recorded December 31, 1947
English Columbia DX 1656 and DX 1657, two 78-rpm records
Link (FLAC files, 44.19 MB)
Link (MP3 files, 20.48 MB)

Brooke's obituary in The Independent, published on April 5, 2005, contains a lot of information about him and is well worth reading.