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2CD
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful
By P. Jenkins
Format:Audio CD
I bought the LP of this, my favourite 20th century symphony, in 1983 and still feel that it offers the most moving performance of the slow movement I've ever heard. Handley's intuition produces perfect pacing, phrasing and timing. The scherzo is excellent - as is the finale, where for the most part he matches his achievement in the funeral march. The central section's thematic repetitiveness is not well served by the choice of tempo, but the reprise of the opening group and the epilogue are very moving. The optional organ pedal makes the final climax even more effective. The first movement is not as exciting as in Boult's famous 1944 disc, but it is good and avoids the slow tempo that became common from the 60's onward.
The CD version sounds fine. I would pay twice the asking price just to have the slow movement.
The CD version sounds fine. I would pay twice the asking price just to have the slow movement.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
By Ralph Moore
TOP 50 REVIEWER
Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase
The latest CfP issue by EMI of this celebrated, thirty years old recording couples the symphony with the late Bernadette Greevy's "Sea Pictures"; both the conductor and the admired Irish mezzo died within a few weeks of each other in September 2008, so this disc makes an apt memorial to them, even though the Second Symphony was always worth acquiring even without that bonus and for me no-one's performance out-guns that of Janet Baker. The performance of the symphony has stood the test of time as one of the most impassioned and idiomatic, even in competition with interpreters such as Barbirolli, Boult and Solti. Handley manages the right balance between swagger and melancholy, pacing the first movement just as Elgar directs: Allegro vivace e nobilmente; not too slowly and allowing the requisite element of unease and even eeriness to infiltrate the superficial tranquillity of the nocturne which forms the slow middle section. The Larghetto is as wistful as one could wish, but again avoids sentimentality by virtue of its propulsiveness, even if for me it never quite achieves the aching beauty of the slow movement of the First Symphony. Handley progressively transforms the Rondo from a jolly jaunt into an explosion of energy, then skilfully launches into smoothly flowing Finale which gathers pace inexorably with a typically Elgarian Big Tune underscored by Handley's use of the organ Elgar suggested "if available", before leaving the listener with an indefinable sense of emotion somewhere between triumph and tears.
The sound is a little dry and forensic, permitting clarity to Elgar's dense orchestration for a large band, but robbing the symphony of some weight. The playing of the LPO is superlative - especially the horns, always vital in Elgar when he is out Straussing Richard Strauss.
The sound is a little dry and forensic, permitting clarity to Elgar's dense orchestration for a large band, but robbing the symphony of some weight. The playing of the LPO is superlative - especially the horns, always vital in Elgar when he is out Straussing Richard Strauss.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
By GlynLuke
TOP 500 REVIEWER
Format:Audio CD
If as I do you relish Janet Baker`s by now classic recording with Barbirolli of Elgar`s short song-cycle, her fruity, windswept contralto immediately commanding as a masthead in the first song, her ripe tones aptly salty throughout, then you might also wish to hear a calmer, less blatantly briny voice in these songs. If so, the late Bernadette Greevy is as close to perfect as I can imagine.
She was an Irish contralto, who by all accounts was not much of an actress, and preferred to live her life in her hometown of Dublin, where she died in 2008 at the age of 67, which is no doubt why I hadn`t heard of her until I listened to this wonderful recording a few years ago.
She had a clear, strong, warm voice, and sings these sometimes testing songs with gravitas and a purity of tone that are beguiling, and just as `right` as the more full-bodied approach of Baker.
She is buoyed up by some glorious playing by the much-missed Vernon Handley, a man who knew his way around the British repertoire as well as anybody, conducting the London Phil in sumptuous form.
Their playing of the great second symphony is a delight. Handley was a no-frills conductor, but never gives short shrift, suppying heft where it is needed, suitably indulgent of Elgar`s brooding lyricism in the Larghetto.
This is a treasured recording, and a coupling as rewarding as the Barbirolli (which
has the Du Pre cello concerto as its main attraction). A pity space couldn`t have been found in the booklet for the words of the songs, but at the price one can`t grumble. The remastered sound is superb in this 1981 recording, and I can only recommend it warmly. For the Sea Pictures alone it is worth having.
She was an Irish contralto, who by all accounts was not much of an actress, and preferred to live her life in her hometown of Dublin, where she died in 2008 at the age of 67, which is no doubt why I hadn`t heard of her until I listened to this wonderful recording a few years ago.
She had a clear, strong, warm voice, and sings these sometimes testing songs with gravitas and a purity of tone that are beguiling, and just as `right` as the more full-bodied approach of Baker.
She is buoyed up by some glorious playing by the much-missed Vernon Handley, a man who knew his way around the British repertoire as well as anybody, conducting the London Phil in sumptuous form.
Their playing of the great second symphony is a delight. Handley was a no-frills conductor, but never gives short shrift, suppying heft where it is needed, suitably indulgent of Elgar`s brooding lyricism in the Larghetto.
This is a treasured recording, and a coupling as rewarding as the Barbirolli (which
has the Du Pre cello concerto as its main attraction). A pity space couldn`t have been found in the booklet for the words of the songs, but at the price one can`t grumble. The remastered sound is superb in this 1981 recording, and I can only recommend it warmly. For the Sea Pictures alone it is worth having.
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