Elgar's Symphony No 2
Elgar's Symphony No 2
The Gramophone Choice
Symphony No 2. In the South, ‘Alassio’, Op 50
BBC Symphony Orchestra / Sir Andrew Davis
Warner Apex 0927 49586-2 (78' · DDD) Buy from Amazon
In his finest achievement on record, Andrew Davis penetrates to the dark inner core of this great symphony. In the opening Allegro vivace e nobilmente, for example, how well he and his acutely responsive players gauge the varying moods of Elgar’s glorious inspiration: be it in the exhilarating surge of that leaping introductory paragraph or the spectral, twilight world at the heart of this wonderful movement, no one is found wanting.
Davis’s unerring structural sense never once deserts him and the BBC Symphony Orchestra play their hearts out. Above all, it’s in the many more reflective moments that Davis proves himself an outstandingly perceptive Elgarian, uncovering a vein of intimate anguish that touches to the very marrow; in this respect, his account of the slow movement is quite heart-rendingly poignant – undoubtedly the finest since Boult’s incomparable 1944 performance with the same orchestra – while the radiant sunset of the symphony’s coda glows with luminous beauty. Prefaced by an equally idiomatic, stirring In the South, this is an Elgar Second to set beside the very greatest.
Additional Recommendations
Symphony No 2
BBC Philharmonic Orchestra / Sir Edward Downes
Naxos 8 550635 (56' · DDD) Buy from Amazon
Here’s further proof that Edward Downes was an Elgarian to be reckoned with. This account of the Second Symphony is up there with the very best. In the first movement, Downes steers a clear-sighted course: here’s the same unexaggerated, splendidly authoritative conception heard from this conductor in the concert hall. Unlike some rivals on record, Downes resists the temptation to give too much too soon, and this feeling of power in reserve lends an extra cumulative intensity to the proceedings; indeed, the coda here is absolutely thrilling. The ensuing Larghetto sees Downes striking a near-perfect balance between introspection and heart-warming passion. Both the Rondo and finale are ideally paced – the former not too hectic, the latter flowing to perfection, culminating in an epilogue of rare delicacy.
Throughout, the BBC Philharmonic play outstandingly for their former chief: the orchestra’s golden-toned cello section must be singled out for special praise. Just a touch more clarity in tuttis and the recording would have been ideal. A deeply sympathetic reading, possessing qualities to match any rival.
Symphonies Nos 1 & 2
London Philharmonic Orchestra / Sir Adrian Boult
Lyrita SRCD221 (100’ · ADD) Recorded 1968. Buy from Amazon
In 1968, when Sir Adrian Boult recorded the two Elgar symphonies for Lyrita, he wrote an open letter to Gramophone, couched diplomatically but reflecting his fury that at the sessions his recording manager had forced him on technical grounds to have all the violins on the left instead of his usual habit of dividing them between the two sections. That said, and 40 years on, the comparisons with Boult’s other recordings of the Elgar symphonies demonstrate very clearly how fine they are, arguably the finest versions he ever recorded.
Compared with the EMI versions recorded less than five years later, they are tauter, the ensemble noticeably crisper. The recording is brighter and clearer in this transfer. The difference is particularly marked in No 2 which, as Elgar said, was a work which Boult was the first conductor to make a success after the disappointing reception given at its premiere. The comparison is closer with the mono recording of No 2, which Boult recorded with the BBC SO in 1945, a superb performance but which is still marginally outshone by the Lyrita version.
Symphonies Nos 1 & 2
Coupled with Cello Concerto. Sea Pictures. Enigma Variations. Sospiri. Serenade for Strings. Cockaigne. Falstaff. Elegy. Introduction and Allegro. Pomp and Circumstance Marches
Du Pré, Baker; Allegri Qt; LSO; Hallé; Philharmonia; New Philharmonia; Sinfonia of London / Barbirolli
EMI 095444-2 (7h 17' · ADD) Buy from Amazon
A self-recommending set that gathers all of Barbirolli’s Elgar recordings for HMV/EMI. Humanity and warmth shine from every bar, and the set is full of classic performances (including the best-selling Cello Concerto/Sea Pictures coupling). Barbirolli was one of the great Elgar interpreters and this set is a wonderful memento of his genius.
DVD Recommendation
Symphony No 2, Op 63*. Variations on an Original Theme, ‘Enigma’**
London Philharmonic Orchestra / Sir Georg Solti
ICA Classics DVD ICAD5011 (84’ · NTSC · 4:3 · LPCM mono · 0). Recorded live *1975, **1979. Buy from Amazon
Between 1972 and 1980, Sir Georg Solti set down a number of hugely stimulating Elgar recordings for Decca; indeed, his dynamic yet wonderfully humane versions of the two symphonies (modelled to a large degree on the composer’s electrifying interpretations) can still hold their own against all comers nearly four decades on.
ICA Classics’ enterprising restoration of two performances with the LPO from the Royal Festival Hall (both originally broadcast on BBC2) is especially valuable for what is surely Solti’s most successful reading of the Enigma Variations. This finds the maestro on infinitely more involving form than on either of his commercial recordings. ‘Nimrod’ in particular is paced to flowing perfection, while the explosive virtuosity of ‘WMB’, ‘Troyte’ and ‘GRS’ is most satisfyingly counterbalanced by the fragant poetry and winsome delicacy of ‘Ysobel’, ‘WN’ and ‘Dorabella’.
The February 1975 performance of the Second Symphony immediately preceded the Decca sessions in Kingsway Hall. It is, quite simply, a document to treasure, with the LPO (as on the commercial recording) galvanised to thrilling effect by Solti’s prodigiously energetic presence on the podium. Not surprisingly, perhaps, there’s an extra edge-of-seat volatility and expressive freedom on show, the secondary material in both the first movement andScherzo shaped with generous flexibility by a conductor who is clearly in love with the music. Otherwise, both accounts exhibit the same thrustingly purposeful manner, with the slow movement attaining even greater levels of noble intensity and rapt concentration than in the studio. The epilogue is profoundly moving in its valedictory radiance and burnished glow.
Both the picture quality and full-blooded (mono) sound are perfectly acceptable. The direction, too, is mercifully undistracting throughout. Most rewarding.
