BaL 28.03.15 - Elgar: Symphony no. 2 in E flat

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

0930
Building a Library
Richard Morrison compares available versions of Elgar's Symphony No. 2 and makes a personal recommendation.

Back in the day it used to be fun to think of Elgar as a chauvinist, tub-thumping Edwardian relic: conductor and wag Sir Thomas Beecham famously derided Elgar's first Symphony as a a neo-Gothic monstrosity, the musical equivalent of St Pancras Station. But now we know better and just as St Pancras Station engenders more affectionate respect than derision, so have Elgar's symphonies come to be regarded as powerful and written with integrity; like all great art, at once of their time and relevant to today. Elgar himself described his second Symphony as 'the passionate pilgrimage of a soul'. Its mixture of grandeur and introspection, energy and elegiac regret is the very essence of Elgar, attracting an international array of front rank conductors into the recording studio.

Available versions:

Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Vladimir Ashkenazy
Halle Orchestra, Sir John Barbirolli (1954)
Halle Orchestra, Sir John Barbirolli (1964)
Staatskapelle Berlin, Daniel Barenboim
BBC Symphony Orchestra, Sir Adrian Boult
BBC Symphony Orchestra, Sir Adrian Boult
London Philharmonic Orchestra, Sir Adrian Boult (Nixa)
London Philharmonic Orchestra, Sir Adrian Boult (EMI stereo)
London Philharmonic Orchestra, Sir Adrian Boult (Lyrita)
Philharmonic Promenade Orchestra, Sir Adrian Boult
BBC Symphony Orchestra, Sir Andrew Davis
Philharmonia Orchestra, Sir Andrew Davis (2010)
London Symphony Orchestra, Sir Colin Davis (BaL budget choice 2005)
BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, Edward Downes
Hallé Orchestra, Sir Mark Elder
Royal Albert Hall Orchestra, Sir Edward Elgar (1924/25))
London Symphony Orchestra, Sir Edward Elgar (1927)
Scottish National Orchestra, Sir Alexander Gibson (download)
Philharmonia Orchestra, Bernard Haitink
London Philharmonic Orchestra, Vernon Handley (download)
BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Richard Hickox
National Youth Orchestra Of Wales, Owain Arwel Hughes
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Sir Charles Mackerras
Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, Sakari Oramo
Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Andre Previn
Royal Philharmonic, Andre Previn (download)
Philharmonia Orchestra, Giuseppe Sinopoli
London Philharmonic Orchestra, Leonard Slatkin
London Philharmonic Orchestra, Sir Georg Solti
London Philharmonic Orchestra, Sir Georg Solti (DVD)
London Symphony Orchestra, Jeffrey Tate
London Philharmonic Orchestra, Bryden Thomson (download)

Iain Farrington (piano) (arr. Farrington)

[makropulos]

Great list - thank you.
I think the Boult LPO Nixa and Philharmonic Promenade are one and the same thing? And it's worth emphasizing that the two Boult BBCSO recordings are from 1945 (EMI) and 1976 (ICA).

This could be a very difficult choice as there are a lot of good performances. My own favourites include Boult 1956 (First Hand Records reissue of Nixa) and 1976 live (ICA), Elgar's second recording (1927), Barbirolli's mono version and Mackerras/RPO. But there's stiff competition!

[Roehre]

Again we've got to accept that this great British symphony is not really appreciated outside these Isles without a British (or English speaking) orchestra and/or English speaking conductor.

The only completely non-"English" recordings are
Staatskapelle Berlin, Daniel Barenboim and
Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra/Sakari Oramo.

Only Staatskapelle Dresden, the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra and the Royal Concertgebouw orchestra are non-"english" speaking.

[antongould]

I just happen to be reading, at the recommendation of many hereabouts, Michael Kennedy on Elgar and at the time of his great period, around the turn of the century, find his works were seemingly much appreciated and performed in Europe.

[EdgeleyRob]

Not sure if EA would agree but IMO this is Elgar's finest work.
It's got everything,it's about everything,it's in the air,it's always with me.
This must be what Elgar meant when he talked about plucking music out of the air.
Not sure what I'm trying to say but anyway I don't think the Mackerras gets the credit it deserves.

[visualnickmos]

.....I don't think the Mackerras gets the credit it deserves.

Indeed - along with Andrew Davis and the BBC Philharmonic - perhaps my fav. recording of this work...

[Nick Armstrong]

A piece with a very special place in my heart.

I had a cassette of the Handley/LPO performance in my Walkman as I made my way to the train home after a fantastic year living in Paris when younger... and the amazing final section of the last movement happened to coincide with my train drawing out of the station and (from my rear-facing seat) with the sight of Sacré-Coeur dwindling against the sunset sky and then disappearing out of view....

RARELY, rarely, comest thou,
Spirit of Delight!
Wherefore hast thou left me now
Many a day and night?
Many a weary night and day
'Tis since thou art fled away.

The Handley remained my touchstone into the CD era (he does something wonderful at the climax of the slow movement, thanks to split 1st & 2nd violins, I recall).

Since then, Boult with the LPO in that stunning Lyrita pairing with No 1 has joined it on my top step.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Not sure if EA would agree but IMO this is Elgar's finest work.

Well, I do prefer the 1st symphony by a whisker, but then I prefer E1 to just about any symphony ever written.

My favourite versions of no. 2 are BBC SO/Andrew Davis, LPO/Boult (Lyrita), LPO/Handley and Halle/Barbirolli 1954. However, I also have a soft spot for a Sargent recording that appeared with BBC Music Magazine and for the later (stereo) Halle/Barbirolli.

[visualnickmos]

Yes - I'd forgotten about Vernon Handley's recording. I must have another listen; I remember being very impressed with it when I first listened, but I have to remind myself of what it was that impressed me! I also seem to recall there was something special about the slow movement....

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Yes - I'd forgotten about Vernon Handley's recording. I must have another listen; I remember being very impressed with it when I first listened, but I have to remind myself of what it was that impressed me! I also seem to recall there was something special about the slow movement....

Yes. That oboe countermelody has never sounded so ravishing.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Not sure if EA would agree but IMO this is Elgar's finest work.

Elgar (1927), Boult (BBCSO 1945), Solti & Handley all do it for me. Never heard the Mackerras, I'm sorry to say, but I should really invest in a recording made in the last 35 years!

[Once Was 4]

Again we've got to accept that this great British symphony is not really appreciated outside these Isles without a British (or English speaking) orchestra and/or English speaking conductor.

The only completely non-"English" recordings are
Staatskapelle Berlin, Daniel Barenboim and
Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra/Sakari Oramo.

Only Staatskapelle Dresden, the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra and the Royal Concertgebouw orchestra are non-"english" speaking.

Has anybody heard the LP of Elgar 2 by the USSR Symphony Orchestra conducted by Yevgeny Svetlanov (HMV SXLP 30539) recorded in 1979?

An amazing 'gutsy' account which, however, is unlikely to be anybody's favourite (but well worth hearing).

I remember listening to it with some other Opera North horn/brass players one free evening and we were in paroxysms of laughter every time the trumpets open up and totally obliterate the rest of the orchestra.

It reminded us of a production of Verdi's 'Nabucco' a couple of years earlier where the conductor (much respected as such and also as a trumpet player which he was before getting 'stick disease') got the four horns to play a rhythmic accompanying passage triple forte and 'bells up'. More than one newspaper critic complained about this - one (in Newcastle I think) complaining about the "ugly Russian blare" from the horns.

Believe me, we had nothing on the USSRSO trumpets in Elgar!

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Oh, yes! Used to be on a mid-price label (?Concert Classics?) originally Melodiya, IIRC. A great favourite of mine ("gutsy" is right - how it should be! ) back in the day. Haven't heard it in over twenty years.

[pastoralguy]

One of my all time favourite works. I agree the Handley/LPO version is very special and contains the organ in the climax of the last movement which is quite 'tummy wobbling'! It's a pity he didn't get the opportunity to re-record this. To have heard him do it with the modern LSO could have been wonderful indeed.

An old fiddle player in Barbirolli's Halle told me that, very occasionally, Sir John would get 'nostalgic' in Elgar 2 so that a performance would take nearly 70 minutes!

[gradus]

RLPO/Petrenko at last years Proms would be at or near my top fave. I'd have loved to hear that nostalgic Barbirolli performance. On cd I've never heard a performance I didn't like.