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

[oliver sudden]

Harrison/Elgar is indeed splendid, and I'm surely scrupulously faithful to Elgar's conception apart from the tuba being rather more active than the score indicates! I will continue to listen to Du Pré and Barbirolli though (both in the studio and live in Prague) for more or less the same reason I listen to, say, Furtwängler's Beethoven, which when all is said and done boils down to: I'm pretty sure that's not what the composer expected or even meant but gosh it's good.

I'm always a little disappointed though that in the Larghetto of the second symphony Elgar himself seems to be the only one who has some of the string surges go in tempo, especially in the bar after figure 85 heading up to the climax. Extremely effective just as it stands and by comparison the usual slowing down just weakens the gesture for me.

[Barbirollians]

Considering how much Elgar praised Menuhin's intensely expressive playing in the 1932 VC recording I have more than a sneaking suspicion he would have liked the du Pre/Barbirolli .

[silvestrione]

I may be wrong, but I seem to remember Lloyd-Webber won a BaL on the Elgar Cello Concerto with the Philips recording..,.it could have been the time Jerrold N Moore (whose passing was recently lamented in these pages) did it and shocked everyone with his comments on Jackie Dupré. Pulcinella will remember.

Yes I have a memory of that, though I think in a later BAL Truls Mork/Rattle was chosen. Terrific disc which includes the Britten Cello Symphony...

[Roger Webb]

Yes I have a memory of that, though I think in a later BAL Truls Mork/Rattle was chosen. ..

This from Wikipedia, doesn't say he chose it on BaL, shows he was keen on it!

"In 1985 Julian Lloyd Webber recorded the concerto with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Yehudi Menuhin. For BBC Music Magazine Jerrold Northrop Moore chose this as the finest version to date and it won a Brit Award for "Best Classical Recording" of 1985."

[makropulos]

I know I’ve said this before but I really wish Warner, who I presume inherited the tapes from EMI, would release Sir Adrian’s Elgar 2 that he recorded with the SNO in the 1960’s. My old fiddle teacher played on that recording and said the players found him to be quite imperious! I think it was originally recorded on the WAVERLY label. There were other recordings made with Gibson and the SNO around the same time but goodness knows where the tapes are now if indeed they still exist.

You're certainly not alone! There are plans for a CD reissue of the SNO Elgar 2 on Somm before too long (coupled with some other interesting material, including Sir Adrian's broadcast of some part-songs that were issued on LP but never on CD).

[smittims]

That will be welcome. I well recall the original broadcast of 'Choral Songs' as they were called. It was the first time I'd heard them and they weren't available on disc until Louis Halsey's splendid Argo LP a couple of years later. I imagine Sir Adrian would have enjoyed making that programme as he had begun his conducting career with amateur choirs.

[Roger Webb]

I may be wrong, but I seem to remember Lloyd-Webber won a BaL on the Elgar Cello Concerto with the Philips recording..,.it could have been the time Jerrold N Moore (whose passing was recently lamented in these pages) did it and shocked everyone with his comments on Jackie Dupré. Pulcinella will remember.

Just come across this...

The BBC Radio 3 feature "Building a Library" has presented comparative reviews of all available versions of the concerto on three occasions, and recommended as follows:

11 February 1984, reviewer, Michael Kennedy:
Jacqueline du Pré (1965)

27 April 1991, reviewer, Jerrold Northrop Moore:
Julian Lloyd Webber
Steven Isserlis
Beatrice Harrison
Paul Tortelier (1998)

14 February 2004, reviewer, Richard Morrison:
Jacqueline du Pré (1965)
Truls Mørk (1999)
Yo-Yo Ma
The

[Lordgeous]

Just come across this...

The BBC Radio 3 feature "Building a Library" has presented comparative reviews of all available versions of the concerto on three occasions, and recommended as follows:

11 February 1984, reviewer, Michael Kennedy:
Jacqueline du Pré (1965)

27 April 1991, reviewer, Jerrold Northrop Moore:
Julian Lloyd Webber
Steven Isserlis
Beatrice Harrison
Paul Tortelier (1998)

14 February 2004, reviewer, Richard Morrison:
Jacqueline du Pré (1965)
Truls Mørk (1999)
Yo-Yo Ma
The

The...... suspense is killing me!

[Barbirollians]

Wasn't there a later Helen Wallace BAL where she chose Mork and du Pre as well ?

[Roger Webb]

Wasn't there a later Helen Wallace BAL where she chose Mork and du Pre as well ?

Yes I don't think that list is comprehensively up to date - I got the info. from an extinct stub...but I was mainly interested in the JNM one.