Five Essential Elgar Recordings - your five?

[Lordgeous]

Very good coupled with a particularly fine Enigma.

Seconded! I think the recording venue makes its mark too. I also have the '70s Boult Elgar 1 mentioned earlier on reel to reel tape, recorded live off air. Has always thrilled me. I can't remember a greater 'roar' from the audience at the end - even that sends a shiver down my spine. Oh to have been there!

[Pabmusic]

Seconded! I think the recording venue makes its mark too. I also have the '70s Boult Elgar 1 mentioned earlier on reel to reel tape, recorded live off air. Has always thrilled me. I can't remember a greater 'roar' from the audience at the end - even that sends a shiver down my spine. Oh to have been there!

I was, but I appreciate it so much more now.

[Lordgeous]

I'm envious!

[pastoralguy]

I have a recording of Gidon Kremer playing it at a competition which I really should look out.

Just looked out! Recorded 25th May 1967 at the Brussels Centre For Fine Arts with the National Symphony Orchestra of Belgium under René Defossez. This was the occasion when Kremer won 3rd prize in the Ysaye & Queen Elisabeth Violin Competition.

I'm listening to this recording just now. Whilst it's hardly a 'library' choice it is quite intriguing. The sound quality isn't the best and the soloist is recorded quite closely which obscures the orchestral details but it's very well played with some idiomatic portamenti from Kremer. He must have studied it with David Oistrakh but, afaik, Kremer's not kept it in his repertoire.

[verismissimo]

After a lifetime with conductors of Elgar whom I've loved - Boult, Barbirolli, Loughran, Solti, Mackerras and others, if I'm stranded on that desert island with one set of Elgar recordings, it would have to be the composer's own electricals, all of them.

[Barbirollians]

After a lifetime with conductors of Elgar whom I've loved - Boult, Barbirolli, Loughran, Solti, Mackerras and others, if I'm stranded on that desert island with one set of Elgar recordings, it would have to be the composer's own electricals, all of them.

Perhaps with Barbirolli's late 1920s Introduction and Allegro that Elgar reputedly said after hearing it - " I don't need to record it now "

[Barbirollians]

Weren't they just! I had them both. The Barbirolli 1950s No. 1 is really fine.

Thanks for reminding me of this recording Pabs- it is wonderfully moving and just freer than the Philharmonia account whilst the King's Lynn account remains my favourite of all.

[Petrushka]

As a teenager, I didn't really like English music generally and Britten and Elgar didn't strike a chord. That all changed when I played Elgar 1 and, later the cello concerto, with Norman.

About the same time the Heifetz recording convinced me about the violin concerto. He played what was written without the sentimentality that had ruined it for me in earlier performances that I had heard and I've since heard two spectacularly memorable live performances: Nigel Kennedy and Martin Milner.

I saw Martin Milner perform the Violin Concerto with the Halle and Loughran in Derby in 1974 or 1975.

[LMcD]

Announcement at the Fairfield Hall in Croydon at the start of a concert in the mid 1980s....
'Ladies and gentlemen, tonight's soloist Salvatore Accardo is unfortunately indisposed and will be replaced in the Elgar violin concerto by the young British violinist Nigel Kennedy'.
I'm not sure whether whether it proved to be his 'breakthrough' performance, but it was very well received on the night.

[Pabmusic]

Announcement at the Fairfield Hall in Croydon at the start of a concert in the mid 1980s....
'Ladies and gentlemen, tonight's soloist Salvatore Accardo is unfortunately indisposed and will be replaced in the Elgar violin concerto by the young British violinist Nigel Kennedy'.
I'm not sure whether whether it proved to be his 'breakthrough' performance, but it was very well received on the night.

I certainly attended a performance by Nige at St. John's Smith Square, which must have been in 1982 or 1983. Can't remember the orchestra though.

I think his early recording with Handley for CfP is superb.

[LMcD]

I certainly attended a performance by Nige at St. John's Smith Square, which must have been in 1982 or 1983. Can't remember the orchestra though.

I think his early recording with Handley for CfP is superb.

I rate Handley highly. In addition to that particular CD, I have his recordings of symphonies by Elgar and Vaughan Williams.

A discussion of this kind on Elgar and recordings of his works is the perfect antidote to the general awfulness of the news, don't you think?

[cloughie]

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I rate Handley highly. In addition to that particular CD, I have his recordings of symphonies by Elgar and Vaughan Williams.

A discussion of this kind on Elgar and recordings of his works is the perfect antidote to the general awfulness of the news, don't you think?

Yes, LMcD the Elgar Oasis Cafe is a good place to be.

Tod was in many ways heir to Boult in British music - his recorded output was beginning to burgeon at the time of Sir Adrian's demise and his conducting like Boult's was quietly business-like with beautiful results.

[Pabmusic]

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I rate Handley highly. In addition to that particular CD, I have his recordings of symphonies by Elgar and Vaughan Williams.

A point rarely noted is that Handley (even more than Boult) followed the score rather than the emotion. A good example is in Symph.1, when in the middle of the last movement the orchestra drop to p, and pp for the wind, for a beautiful augmented version of the last mvt. 1st subject (itself a version of the 'motto' theme). The score is very clear: at fig. 130 the orchestra drops to p cantabile (or pp) and remains so (with only the slightest nudge) till 4 bars before 134, when there's a sudden cresc. to f. Solti (whom I love) gets all gushy here with portamento, and a sound like a WW2 British film (I'm sure John Mills is somewhere nearby). Then at the end when the motto theme at last returns, everything is ff, except for the tune itself, which is (1) last desks only of v.1, v.2, violas, cellos, ff, and (2) 3rd trumpet (yes, 3rd), mf! Yet almost everyone lets the tune be heard clearly from the start - something Elgar clearly doesn't want. Except for Handley, who is spot-on.

[gradus]

A point rarely noted is that Handley (even more than Boult) followed the score rather than the emotion. A good example is in Symph.1, when in the middle of the last movement the orchestra drop to p, and pp for the wind, for a beautiful augmented version of the last mvt. 1st subject (itself a version of the 'motto' theme). The score is very clear: at fig. 130 the orchestra drops to p cantabile (or pp) and remains so (with only the slightest nudge) till 4 bars before 134, when there's a sudden cresc. to f. Solti (whom I love) gets all gushy here with portamento, and a sound like a WW2 British film (I'm sure John Mills is somewhere nearby). Then at the end when the motto theme at last returns, everything is ff, except for the tune itself, which is (1) last desks only of v.1, v.2, violas, cellos, ff, and (2) 3rd trumpet (yes, 3rd), mf! Yet almost everyone lets the tune be heard clearly from the start - something Elgar clearly doesn't want. Except for Handley, who is spot-on.

Thanks for the insights, just the sort of thing R3 should devote programmes to.
Could I add a few favourites to the many already noted.
Andrew Davis's Proms Gerontius with the redoubtable Florence Quivar, the memory of it still gives me goosepimples hearing Florence's exultant Allelujah! That's how you do it.
Menuhin's recording of Enigma.
Any of the Wand of Youth pieces.
The Shepherd's Song.
Menuhin in the violin concerto.

[Pabmusic]

Thanks for the insights, just the sort of thing R3 should devote programmes to....

I'm awaiting a call.