BaL 01.06.2024 - Elgar: Symphony 1

[Pianoman]

Reply to Dougie...
\Yes listening again it very nearly tips over into breathlessness, though to my ears he manages to pull back at just the right moments to avoid it. I've always like the Solti so it's no surprise I liked this, and I think the Mannheim orchestra play very impressively, so it can happily sit alongside my many other favourites.

[oliver sudden]

Lionel Bringuier / WDR Symphony Orchestra - Televised concert in Cologne 2023

Vernon Handley / Melbourne Symphony - Live TV transmission 1994

Well well, two from my various home towns. I might well have seen the MSO concert—I certainly saw them play it and it must have been around that time or a few years earlier. I’m glad I didn’t know the WDRSO were playing it since I can’t really get to concerts nowadays! The most recent live performance I’ve seen was with the other Cologne orchestra (Gürzenich) conducted by none other than Sir Roger. Magnificent concert and the band played well above themselves.

I suppose one very good reason for still calling the programme ‘Building a Library’ is that it narrows down the focus somewhat, towards looking for a recording that ticks all the boxes (or as many as possible) rather than one that’s of more specialist interest. (On those criteria, for example, I wouldn’t personally pick Staatskapelle Dresden / C Davis, although I love that recording to bits and would specifically recommend it to anyone who didn’t think they liked the piece!)

[Barbirollians]

Sorry to disappoint oliver sudden et al, but sadly there is no Staatskapelle Dresden version of Elgar 2 at present. The current BAL recommendation is the Barenboim/Staatskapelle Berlin on Decca, as chosen in 2015 by Richard Morrison.

To clear up any confusion: it is the Dresden/Davis recording of the Symphony No 1 in A Flat which is the current BAL recommendation of that work (a DON selection).

Ah yes that reminds me Morrison sneered at the Barbirolli as being staid and stolid whilst completely missing the obvious strong influence his reading had on Barenboim’s account . Too slow in the first movement - arguably so - too emotional in the Larghetto possibly but staid and stolid - Eejit.

[Barbirollians]

I rather prefer Sir Colin’s LSO account to the Dresden one.

[akiralx]

Sorry to disappoint oliver sudden et al, but sadly there is no Staatskapelle Dresden version of Elgar 2 at present. The current BAL recommendation is the Barenboim/Staatskapelle Berlin on Decca, as chosen in 2015 by Richard Morrison.

To clear up any confusion: it is the Dresden/Davis recording of the Symphony No 1 in A Flat which is the current BAL recommendation of that work (a DON selection).

I did download a Concertgebouw/Colin Davis Elgar 2 from YouTube a few years ago but it seems it is not there now.

[akiralx]

Well well, two from my various home towns. I might well have seen the MSO concert—I certainly saw them play it and it must have been around that time or a few years earlier.

I did hear the Melbourne SO perform an excellent Elgar 2 in 2013 under the late Bramwell Tovey - before the interval Kirill Gerstein played the Rachmaninov Fourth, a very enjoyable concert.

[oliver sudden]

I did hear the Melbourne SO perform an excellent Elgar 2 in 2013 under the late Bramwell Tovey - before the interval Kirill Gerstein played the Rachmaninov Fourth, a very enjoyable concert.

I was well away from Melbourne by then… but strangely enough it was the current principal clarinet there who introduced me to the piece, while we were both studying!

[oliver sudden]

Ah yes that reminds me Morrison sneered at the Barbirolli as being staid and stolid whilst completely missing the obvious strong influence his reading had on Barenboim’s account .

If only it had had rather more influence

I heard the Barenboim over the speakers at Concerto in Amsterdam and was quite impressed. Alas on listening to it at home I could not for the life of me recreate this state of impressedness and it went straight to the cull stack.

[smittims]

I prefer Barenboim's 1970s CBS Elgar recordings, fresher and more spontaneous than his recent revisitings, good though they were.

[Barbirollians]

Somehow I doubt I am going to need to buy the winner . I find I have on CD Boult ( live ICA Classics) LPO EMI and the Lyrita recording, Barbirolli - King's Lynn live , Philharmonia and Halle 1956, Barenboim ( Decca), Davis (LSO Live and Dresden ) , Elder ( earlier recordings) , Elgar , Handley LPO Live and EMI, Loughran ASV, Mackerras, Menuhin, Sinopoli , Silvestri and Solti

[Petrushka]

Somehow I doubt I am going to need to buy the winner . I find I have on CD Boult ( live ICA Classics) LPO EMI and the Lyrita recording, Barbirolli - King's Lynn live , Philharmonia and Halle 1956, Barenboim ( Decca), Davis (LSO Live and Dresden ) , Elder ( earlier recordings) , Elgar , Handley LPO Live and EMI, Loughran ASV, Mackerras, Menuhin, Sinopoli , Silvestri and Solti

I have all of those too apart from Loughran, Menuhin and Silvestri but additionally have Andrew Davis (BBC SO) and Haitink so doubt if I am in the market for any more.

[smittims]

This is interesting to me, perhaps because, although I have loved this symphony for nearly sixty years, since I first heard it in what was possibly the early days of Radio 3 played by the Radio Frankfurt S.O conducted by Colin Davis I still make an effort to hear new interpretations, e'g Manze.

At one time some connection with Elgar was felt to be important in interpreters, e.g Boult was a personal friend, Barbirolli played under his baton, Sargent would have heard him conduct often. As time goes by credentials shift to people who knew or studied with, or were inspired by these men (Handley/Boult, Barenboim/Barbirolli) . The next stage is I suppose, what's happened with Mozart and Beethoven, the scholars move in with their research which they claim, shows that the composer 'would have expected' this or that.

And yet no-one plays Elgar quite as he did. Trying to recreate string portamento and 'free-style' execution can sound contrived, even twee, in an age where precision has for so long been expected. It will be interesting to se what the next generation of interpreters make of their options.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

My number 1 recording remains the former Pye Hallé/Barbirolli, which was the first stereo recording. It was issued on 3 LP sides initially, but by the time I bought it on Golden Guinea, it had been reissued on 2 sides, with an annoying split between the 2nd & 3rd movements. The recorded sound was fierce in the extreme, but subsequent reissues on CD have tamed the excesses, and Warner’s transfer, in the big 109 CD Barbirolli box, is the best of all.

[Darloboy]

IIRC it was chosen on RR last time (or the time before - time flies), I bought it but much prefer Boult on EMI or live. I also bought the Barenboim after strong reviews but was disappointed and 've never taken to the Solti version.

Yes, the Hurst was Jerrold Northrop Moore's first choice in April 1994 with Elgar's own recording as historical choice.

And as Sir Velo has already pointed out, in March 07 David Owen Norris chose Sir Colin Davis with the Staatskapelle Dresden

[smittims]

I'm glad to see George Hurst remembered. I well recall hearing him with the BBC Northern S.O. ad the Bournemouth. It's a great pity he didn't get more invitations to record.