Elgar: the 2nd Symphony

[amateur51]

... including Wales?

Natch!

[amateur51]

IMO, Solti's recordings of the (two extant) Elgar Symphonies are the best since Elgar's own (or Boult's Second from 1944: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6JTn1pSIPI): real fire in these performances, especially the opening of the Second. I don't think he did anything better in the recording studio.

Others find him too aggressive and brusque, and prefer the Music to be given more time to breathe: Boult in the 70s, Haitink, Thompson and even Sinopoli are perhaps more to their taste. The best recording in this tradition IMO is Loughran with the Hallé.

Handley seems to get the best of both "schools" - but I still prefer Solti.

It's a measure of how truly wonderful these symphonies are, imo, that there might be said to be 'schools of interpretation'. I loved the Solti symphony no 1 as soon as it came out & I've just ordered the LPO Elgar box because you get both of the Solti performances plus much else that is wonderful.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B000NOIWVW/ref=ox_sc_act_title_2?ie=UTF8&smid=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE

[ahinton]

It's a measure of how truly wonderful these symphonies are, imo, that there might be said to be 'schools of interpretation'.

Indeed so - and let's also hear it for Svetlanov in the Second!

[amateur51]

Indeed so - and let's also hear it for Svetlanov in the Second!

Now you're talking - what a performance!

Is it the fastest performance with added horn vibrato?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Indeed so - and let's also hear it for Svetlanov in the Second!

[amateur51]

Has the Svetlanov made it on to CD? - I've only heard it on an HMV Concert Classics LP I think

[verismissimo]

IMO, Solti's recordings of the (two extant) Elgar Symphonies are the best since Elgar's own (or Boult's Second from 1944: real fire in these performances, especially the opening of the Second...
Others find him too aggressive and brusque, and prefer the Music to be given more time to breathe: Boult in the 70s, Haitink, Thompson and even Sinopoli are perhaps more to their taste. The best recording in this tradition IMO is Loughran with the Hallé.
Handley seems to get the best of both "schools" - but I still prefer Solti.

Wot no Barbirolli?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Wot no Barbirolli?

- it's been years since I listened to Barbirolli's Elgar #2, and I don't currently have a copy!
Don't know why: his last recording of the First (Live with the Hallé a few days before he died) is very special.

[Hornspieler]

IMO, Solti's recordings of the (two extant) Elgar Symphonies are the best since Elgar's own (or Boult's Second from 1944: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6JTn1pSIPI): real fire in these performances, especially the opening of the Second. I don't think he did anything better in the recording studio.

Others find him too aggressive and brusque, and prefer the Music to be given more time to breathe: Boult in the 70s, Haitink, Thompson and even Sinopoli are perhaps more to their taste. The best recording in this tradition IMO is Loughran with the Hallé.

.

.... who learnt his trade as Assistant Conductor to Silvestri in Bournemouth.

I have Silvestri's recorded broadcast of Symphony Nº 1 (unfortunately in mono). The tapes were borrowed from Bristol by Robert Simpson and when they were eventually returned were sadly wiped on the orders of BBC London on the grounds of economy() but I did manage to secure a personal copy before the philistine act took place.

Silvestri was a great interpreter of Elgar's music and his recording of Alassio (which the BBC did keep and made available on BBC Legends) demonstrated the fact that you don't have to be a native of a country to be a great interpreter of that country's music.

HS

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Wot no Barbirolli?

I think Barbirolli was at his best in the 1st Symphony, and that his 1957 Hallé version is the finest available. For the 2nd Symphony, I would goe for Sir Andrew Davis's version.
Solti doesn't really impress in either, the 1st symphony recording being merely a carbon copy of Elgar's, even including the (probably) accidental tempo change that occurred as a result of a 78 side change in the composer's recording. (Barenboim does the same thing.)

[Tony Halstead]

I think Barbirolli was at his best in the 1st Symphony, and that his 1957 Hallé version is the finest available

I also think that his 'Introduction and Allegro' from around the same time (Hallé) is superior to his 'remake' on EMI with the 'Sinfonia of London' ( a 'pickup band' )

[cloughie]

I think Barbirolli was at his best in the 1st Symphony, and that his 1957 Hallé version is the finest available. For the 2nd Symphony, I would goe for Sir Andrew Davis's version.
Solti doesn't really impress in either, the 1st symphony recording being merely a carbon copy of Elgar's, even including the (probably) accidental tempo change that occurred as a result of a 78 side change in the composer's recording. (Barenboim does the same thing.)

Barenboim also pushes the portamento a bit too much.
Barbarolli's 60s HMV recordings of both 1 and 2 are the ones that do it for me (as do his RVW 2 & 5).

[Hornspieler]

Barenboim also pushes the portamento a bit too much.
Barbarolli's 60s HMV recordings of both 1 and 2 are the ones that do it for me (as do his RVW 2 & 5).

It is one of my great regrets that I never had the priviledge and pleasure of playing under Sir John Barbirolli.

Stories about him are legendary. Two of my great friends, Ifor James and Roger Winfield, had so many wonderful stories about JB in rehearsal and both of them could mimic his voice and his gestures to perfection. Much has been written about the sayings of Sir Thomas Beecham.

I'm sure that some of the anecdotes about JB would be of equal amusement and interest to message boarders; but that is surely a topic for a separate thread.

HS

[amateur51]

I'm sure that some of the anecdotes about JB would be of equal amusement and interest to message boarders; but that is surely a topic for a separate thread.

HS

If you have the time & inclination to start such a thread HS, you have a ready & willing audience I'm sure

[Nick Armstrong]

If you have the time & inclination to start such a thread HS, you have a ready & willing audience I'm sure

Second the motion!