Elgar: Symphonies Nos 1 and 2

[cloughie]

This is worrying. This thread is tempting me into chasing all recordings of Elgar 1.

I mustn't do it.
I mustn't do it.
I mustn't do it.
I mustn't do it.

I know what you mean - I've already browsed Amazon - btw is the Green Quink permanent?

[amateur51]

Still no takers for these performances ?



I love them,

Sorry, I've just got to say it - this is one of the worst examples of CD artwork I've seen in many a long day

The music-making is, however, very fine

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

- btw is the Green Quink permanent?

Nah! I've just answered this on the Fonz thread.

[BBMmk2]

Still no takers for these performances ?



I love them,

That does look tempting!!

What's the Della jones performance like, in Sea Pictures?

[EdgeleyRob]

That does look tempting!!

What's the Della jones performance like, in Sea Pictures?

Beautiful BBM.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

So for me, Elgar wrote two great symphonies and I cherish them both but for different reasons.

[Pabmusic]

That recording is of the Karg-Elert arrangement. I have it and he did a fine job. It was Elgar who recommended Karg-Elert for the job IIRC.

Thanks, you're the first person I've met who seems to know it! I think I'll get the CD.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Fascinatin' to see what all these foreign johnnies make of Elgar, ain't it....!

- I haven't noticed anyone mentioning the superb Svetlanov/USSR SO recording of the Second Symphony, which I used to have on HMV/Melodiya LP but which now goes for silly prices. Svetlanov was a great Elgar conductor: his Gerontius in the RFH in the mid-'80s was overwhelming.

But agree that Haitink and Sinopoli made a really bad job of the Second: both too slow ('tho' Joe makes Bernie seem positively sprightly!) and fragmentary, lacking the fire that gives this work its immortality.

And agree: Slatkin is excellent. I used to own these and they were amongst the main casualties of my "downsizing" when I gave up my full-time job twenty years ago.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I've never heard this slow performance ...

...Or this (back to 21 mins):

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Elgar-Sympho...m_cd_album_lnk

In a recent BBCMusMag, this is the work Brabbins says he most wishes he could re-record, as there wasn't enough time to accustom the players to the unfamiliar Music before recording.

[Bryn]

In a recent BBCMusMag, this is the work Brabbins says he most wishes he could re-record, as there wasn't enough time to accustom the players to the unfamiliar Music before recording.

Thanks for that. You have saved me from very nearly ordering it. I will wait for Brabbins to be given another go at it.

[Stanley Stewart]

A surprise and a shock last night when I checked the CD shelves last night and found an embarrassment of riches in my Elgar collection; many of the recordings listed here. A one-off rarity is a 2CD set, Barbirolli Conducts Elgar II, RVW VI, Purcell and Delius, from 1964 concerts with BSO. Pressings by Denon, Japan. Music & Arts, CD-251 (2). I recall finding this rarity in Newport Court (behind Leicester Sq u/g) at a giveaway price. Happy memories of rummaging those second hand bargain shops in the West End, over several decades. We covered them all in a lengthy thread on the R3 boards some years ago. This set now has precedence on my 'to be played' selection.

A further performance of Elgar II by BBC SO/Malcolm Sargent, in the BBCMM collection, Vol 15, No 10, has also been added.

[visualnickmos]

Still no takers for these performances ?



I love them,

These are excellent performances - direct and with tremendous feeling, and NOT (thank goodness) too "British" and not too sentimental, if you know what I mean...

[Nick Armstrong]

. Svetlanov was a great Elgar conductor: his Gerontius in the RFH in the mid-'80s was overwhelming.

Bloody hell, now there's a concert I'd like to have been at!

Half decent singers as well, ferney?

[Pabmusic]

Bloody hell, now there's a concert I'd like to have been at!

Half decent singers as well, ferney?

There was briefly an LP set of Svetlanov conducting Gerontius live in Moscow in [?] 1983. The chorus was Russian, though I'm not so sure about the orchestra (LSO, I think). The soloists were British (Arthur Davies was Gerontius). Sorry to be so vague, but I never owned a set.

[richardfinegold]

I have to say that is precisely the analogy that has occurred to me when hearing a Norrington/Stuttgart performance... Sorry, Bryn.

Norrington is a polarizing figure. Listeners either love his approach or cannot abide it. He at least has that in common (and probably nothing else) with Celibidache. It's a wonderful thing for listeners to be able to have enough purchasing options of recordings to be able to accomodate disparate approaches.