BaL 4.01.20 - Elgar: Enigma Variations

[Alison]

No Boult or Barbirolli or Mackerras.

[underthecountertenor]

No Boult or Barbirolli or Mackerras.

Too much time spent on anecdote and shallow analysis of the music at the expense of either range or depth of analysis of the available recordings - which I thought was what BaL was all about. No longer, apparently.

[BBMmk2]

Not a very good BaL. Agree with under the counter. Also agree with Alison as well. I didn’t agre also with the outcome, either.

[Nevilevelis]

Too much time spent on anecdote and shallow analysis of the music at the expense of either range or depth of analysis of the available recordings - which I thought was what BaL was all about. No longer, apparently.

Now so pointless - such a pity.

[LeMartinPecheur]

Cloughmeister punches the air at library winner.

As does LMP. 2 out of the 3 in the frame can't be bad! Should indeed be 'quite enough' though I have just sneaked a peek at copies of the Del Mar...

LSO/ Monteux (Decca World of...) was my first as a student, because cheap as well as good. Later supplemented by PO/ Barbirolli and LPO/ Mackerras, and Elgar's own via World Record Club, all on LP. Not very much on CD except the big EMI box of all Elgar's electrical recordings and a Naxos Bournemouth SO/ Hurst. Oh, and a BBC MM. So not very many really, but I daresay quite enough.

[DracoM]

Too much time spent on anecdote and shallow analysis of the music at the expense of either range or depth of analysis of the available recordings - which I thought was what BaL was all about. No longer, apparently.

Spot on.
Oh dear ......where is this core programme going?

[Keraulophone]

I will be extracting Enigma from my Solti Chicago box for the first time.

I'd be interested to know what you think of it, Alison.

As I said, I far prefer his LPO versions, especially the live one from BBC2 TV, and to a limited extent his VPO recording.

Solti's early infatuaton with the Chicago orchestra doesn't serve this music well. In other music, compare his LSO Mahler 1, 2, 3 & 9 with the CSO remakes. Aside from more up-to-date sound engineering, which in itself may not actually be an improvement, what is gained in Chicago apart from a layer of virtuosic varnish?
.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

No Boult or Barbirolli or Mackerras.

Quite absurd to overlook these Enigma giants.

[Keraulophone]

Now so pointless - such a pity.

As a BaL listener since 1972, I feel as though I've lost an old friend - killed off by the deaf ears of Producer's (or Management's) Curse.
.

[underthecountertenor]

Spot on.
Oh dear ......where is this core programme going?

I’d say down the plug hole, but I think it’s reached the U-bend.

[cloughie]

A fine recording of Solti IMO overdriving the Enigma Variations (described by Andrew Achenbach in Gramophone as 'worryingly slick') with an undeniably virtuoso display from the Chicago SO that contrasts markedly (on the Decca Ovation reissue that I've just reminded myself of) with the marvellously idiomatic playing of the LPO in Solti's 'Cockaigne' Overture recorded a year earlier (1976) in Kingsway Hall. The five P & C Marches are also excellent on this disc.

Solti's RFH performance with the LPO on ICA Classics taken from a BBC2 broadcast is also preferable to his Vienna PO recording from 1996. This very interesting DVD also includes a live Symphony No.2 in a RFH performance that preceded the well known Decca recording.

https://icaclassics.com/releases/sir-georg-solti

There’s also a VPO Solti c/w Blacher and Kodaly.

[gurnemanz]

I didn't get a lot out of this BaL except that I might go for this recently issued cheapo 10CD Monteux set on which Enigma are included:

https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/8685381--pierre-monteux-milestones-of-a-legend

[cloughie]

Cloughmeister punches the air at library winner.

Well, yes, but a sniff around Boult and Barbirolli was really needed too.

[Keraulophone]

There’s also a VPO Solti c/w Blacher and Kodaly.

...which I mentioned in my second paragraph.

[Master Jacques]

It was indeed a grating and tiresome BaL in presentational terms. Who thinks that dippy, middle-class gigglesome is the way to go for Record Review? Nobody here, for sure!

None the less, most of the old standard-bearers (including Barbirolli and Boult) were at least mentioned, if not illustrated. Some of the reviewer's anecdotes were new to me, and in amongst the chaff there was some good wheat about the nature of the work. Hard to disagree either with her final, very personal shortlist either - at least she didn't take a penny-in-slot route to a decision.

But what a cringeworthy listen it was.