The British Music Collection: Sir Edward Elgar [Box set]

It was high time to have the symphonies on cd, and in particular to have versions by a non-English conductor. Elgar is big enough to transcend nationality, and so is Solti. I would call his account of the second symphony a formidable and worthy rival to both Boult and Barbirolli, and I actually prefer his handling of the first to the only other I own, namely Barbirolli again. Quality in the recorded sound seems to me to be especially important to Elgar's first symphony, and in that respect Solti enjoys a clear advantage. I have always found the first symphony to be a much more complex and elusive composition than the second. Elgar's peculiar and individual mix of dutiful nobility with inward unease seems to me to resolve in favour of his outgoing side in the second symphony whereas his unresolved tensions come to the fore in the first, especially in its first movement. Elgar may indeed have been what Shaw called him, the greatest of orchestral technicians, but his sound does not have the sharp clear edge that characterises the orchestral writing of his contemporaries and rivals for that pre-eminence Mahler Strauss and Ravel. It is a thicker brew, with a lot more string sound to it, and in the first symphony it can coagulate unless the recording has sufficient clarity. The rather second-rate sound that Barbirolli was given does not help clarity at his fast and urgent tempo in the first movement, and I have to judge in favour of Solti's more measured handling of it. The second symphony is another matter. The marvellous opening of Schumann's Rhenish symphony inspired both Brahms in his third symphony (Elgar's own favourite symphony) and Elgar himself, both directly and also via Brahms. The colouring is more vivid throughout and the sense of stress much less. There's not really a lot to choose between these three superb accounts. Boult probably still shades it for me through a special incisiveness in some details of the playing and the rhythm, but anyone in search of a set containing top-class readings of both these great symphonies will have no reason to regret getting this pair of discs from Solti.

There are days when I think that the introduction and allegro for strings is the greatest thing Elgar ever did. When asked the secret of writing for string orchestra Elgar said 'Go back to old Handel'. Those quirky masterpieces, Handel's op6 concerti grossi, can also be heard in Beethoven's late string quartets. Whether through Handel's influence or not, Elgar rises to his fullest majesty in this piece with none of his characteristic neurosis, and if any one work bears out Shaw's claim for him as an orchestrator it might actually be this. This is a fine set in every way, and I recommend it warmly.