Elgar: Symphony 1, 2 [CD]

There are many cheap sets of the Elgar symphonies available at present including the EMI Boult recordings that he made in the early 1970's, or about five years after these discs, and the question arises as to why one should buy this Lyrita edition rather than, say Solti/Decca or Boult/EMI, both of which are about £3 cheaper. The reason is because of Boult's long championing of Elgar's symphonies, especially the Second - and indeed it was Boult in concerts in 1919 who managed delivered the first successes that this latter symphony enjoyed. Elgar's own recording of 1928 has been recovered from 78 rpm masters and he and the LSO dispatch the Second Symphony in just over 45 minutes. The 1931 First Symphony, on the other hand, is a model of superb pacing and is recorded rather more richly. We are lucky to have Elgar's own thoughts about his own music, fairly well recorded, but even here the Second remains a controversial interpretation, one that Solti tried to emulate in his Decca recording but which ultimately stresses only the nervy and restless elements of the score. In 1944 HMV recorded Boult in the Second with the BBC SO. This is a famous disc, recorded in studios in Bedford because of the dangers and problems of the war, and it was meant to be a replacement for the Elgar! In turning to Boult the record company chose the conductor whom they thought to be the preeminent interpreter of the Second Symphony - and it is true that Boult's performance of the A flat Symphony always has seemed a little less idiomatic than that of the E flat Symphony. By the time EMI (HMV's successors) turned to Boult again in the early 1970's, his greater age was the probably cause of less energetic and more contemplative interpretations. Some people have described them as "national monuments" and there does seem to be some distancing away from the immediate and razor sharp emotional response of Boult's many earlier performances.

Lyrita got him just in time. The interpretations are still those of the vigour and fire that he had brought to the works throughout his life. Indeed, Sir Adrian might have had an element of impatience and irritation when making these records because shortly after they were issued he wrote an open letter to Gramophone Magazine complaining that the recording engineers had forced him to place all the violins on the left instead of his usual practice of diving firsts and seconds antiphonally left and right respectively across the stage. If he was irritated then all to the good of the music, where the angry and fantastical elements of the music emerge just as sharply (or even more so) than in 1944. Needless to say that the delicate and lyrical is also wonderfully served. Boult's interpretation is, literally, peerless. He is, simply, one of the greatest Elgarians who ever lived and these recordings show him at the height of his powers.

When originally issued 40 years ago as vinyl discs the sound quality was a little disappointing compared to Lyrita's normal standard. There might have been pressing difficulties and long sides to cope with, which would explain the low sound level of the discs. This has been eliminated in the CD remastering and the recording quality is much improved, and, if not of the VERY highest digital sound, it is certainly rich, natural and easy on the ear.

These are wonderful discs and are, in my opinion, easily the top recommendation for the Elgar Symphonies - and that's saying something in a field as competitive as this one. Get them whilst they are still available.

Colin Fortune has a written a thoughtful review of these discs, one with which I concur at pretty much every point. I owned the LPs, buying them when they came out, and I always found the eventual received view - it was not the critical view when they first appeared - that they were inferior to the later EMI recordings puzzling. Yes, Boult was displeased that the producer insisted on an orchestral seating arrangement which he did not much like - he was a great champion of the 'first-facing-seconds' plan also used by Klemperer, Toscanini, Walter and others and now much more in favour than it was forty or fifty years ago. But while this clearly affected the sound balance and distribution, I never thought it reduced the power and eloquence of the performances. More than any others these interpretations offer well-proportioned readings, you might even say 'symphonic' readings, of the two great works. Everything is architecturally balanced and the overall effect is very very satisfying. When the music stops, you feel absolute justice has been done to Elgar's conceptions, perhaps rather as Sir Edward himself did way back in 1919 when Boult conducted the Second Symphony memorably well and won the public's affection for a work which had not, till then, found great favour. It was at that point that Elgar offered his view that the future of his music was safe in Boult's hands. Well, it is here, and the recordings are beautifully clear and natural. It's a lovely two-CD set and it is wonderful to have it, after many years, easily available and reasonably priced.

I don't want to spoil things, but I've by chance been trying to transfer a very compromised LP copy of this performance of the First Symphony to CD via my computer, and I've been listening intensively to the second side. Unfortunately it proved to be too far gone to yield the complete text, so on the assurance of these reviews I bought this CD transfer, and listened to the same three movements as soon as it arrived. I have to say I find no difference in the CD remastering at all. The very effective pianissimo at the start of the scherzo (a good place to start sampling) soon reveals itself to be less a function of Boult's interpretation than of the very distant balance, and the vigour of the finale is undermined by the same lack of immediacy in the original recording. I have no criticism of the performance itself. But do not buy this issue expecting miracles from the transfer. In my view Boult's best recorded Elgar First is the Testament transfer from his postwar 78s. The Prom performance from the early 1970s in which he decided to try for Elgar's own tempi - and succeeded - has been issued twice by the BBC. It is worth hearing, but a lot of corners are taken on two wheels and it's not that well played. It's a pity that the interest in this performance seems to have blinded the BBC to its possession (at least I hope it still has it) of Boult's 1977 Prom farewell to the Second Symphony, which really does deserve revival on CD.