MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2024
60,000 reviews
... and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here Acte Prealable Polish CDs
 

Presto Music CD retailer
 
Founder: Len Mullenger                                    Editor in Chief:John Quinn             


CD REVIEW
BARGAIN OF THE MONTH


Some items
to consider

new MWI
Current reviews

old MWI
pre-2023 reviews

paid for
advertisements

Acte Prealable Polish recordings

Forgotten Recordings
Forgotten Recordings
All Forgotten Records Reviews

TROUBADISC
Troubadisc Weinberg- TROCD01450

All Troubadisc reviews


FOGHORN Classics

Alexandra-Quartet
Brahms String Quartets

All Foghorn Reviews


All HDTT reviews


Songs to Harp from
the Old and New World


all Nimbus reviews



all tudor reviews


Follow us on Twitter


Editorial Board
MusicWeb International
Founding Editor
   
Rob Barnett
Editor in Chief
John Quinn
Contributing Editor
Ralph Moore
Webmaster
   David Barker
Postmaster
Jonathan Woolf
MusicWeb Founder
   Len Mullenger

Buywell Just Classical

 

Sir Edward ELGAR (1857-1934)
Froissart op. 19 [13:43] (1)
Cello Concerto in E minor op. 85 [31:12] (2)
Variations on an Original Theme – “Enigma” op. 36 [31:21] (3)
The Wand of Youth – Suites nos. 1 op. 1a [19:55] and 2 op. 1b [16:51] (4)
The Starlight Express: Songs [29:44] (5)
Dream Children op. 26 [07:26] (6)
Alison Hagley (soprano) (5), Bryn Terfel (bas-baritone) (5), Robert Cohen (cello) (2), Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (1-3), Welsh National Opera Orchestra (4-6)/Sir Charles Mackerras
rec. February 1992, Walthamstow Assembly Hall, London (1-3), December 1990, Brangwyn Hall, Swansea, Wales (4-6)
DECCA ELOQUENCE 4428280 [76:38 + 74:26]
Experience Classicsonline


The particular nature of Elgar’s orchestral output means that it come on CD in all sorts of couplings. It would not be all that easy to assemble a complete series of the major works in good performances without several duplications on the way. Since the music lends itself to a wide number of interpretative stances, perhaps this is all to the good. However, anyone starting a collection who bought, on my recommendation, the 2-CD set of Boult’s performances of the symphonies and a few other works may be encouraged to know that the present issue doesn’t duplicate anything at all and also offers a quite different angle on the music. If you’re after basic Elgar you’ll still need, as far as the orchestral side goes, Falstaff, the Violin Concerto and Cockaigne.

It is possible, of course, that EMI will gradually bring out the rest of their Boult/Elgar recordings. Since I have all the present works under Boult in LP or CD format – except “The Starlight Express” which he didn’t record – I’ll make him my point of reference.

In a long career, Sir Charles Mackerras has amassed a staggering discography covering most musical periods and styles. Probably more of his recordings than those by any other conductor have remained front-runners for the work in question. Even when not, I don’t remember ever reading a review which suggested he was right off the beam for that particular piece, or that he just wasn’t on form. Yet he has never been particularly associated with Elgar and I was rather curious as to how he would approach him.

The secret of Mackerras’s success perhaps lies in his ability to penetrate a wide range of musical styles. While in Mozart he may seem something of a strict-time conductor, in Elgar he understands perfectly the continual ebb and flow of the music, the flexibility within a phrase. Though he can summon up swagger and vitality when called for, what I find memorable here is his evocation of Elgar’s nostalgia. If this differentiates him from Boult’s more structural approach, the actual sound he draws from the orchestra is generally delicate, luminous, even diaphanous. As a result he is equally distant from Barbirolli’s “con amore” manner.

His one miscalculation seems to me to come very near the beginning of the first disc. Adopting a “living for the moment” method in “Froissart” means that the music practically stops within a minute of its beginning when the chorale-like theme is introduced. This is the sort of moment where Boult tends to be supreme. He gives this new idea all the character it needs but in parenthesis, as it were, without stopping the flow. Since this early work is teeming with ideas but inclined to sprawl I feel that Boult is more effective in holding it together. I recognize, though, that Mackerras gets more pointed playing and characterizes certain moments more vividly. I am speaking of the 1972 Boult, there’s one from 1956 that I don’t know.

At the beginning of the Cello Concerto both Cohen and Mackerras announce a very expansive manner, with expressive pauses before sinking into each new idea. It’s impossible to know if this is Mackerras’s own view or whether he is just being a sympathetic accompanist, but he certainly sounds as if he believes in it. This is very much a post-Du Pré/Barbirolli performance, even managing to add a further minute-and-a-half to the role-model and about six to Elgar’s own recording with Beatrice Harrison. Here, I think, lies the problem. Since the fast music goes at about the same speed in all performances, extending the slow parts by six minutes alters the proportion of slow music to fast, as well as practically creating a further slow movement by treating the first movement as one, rather than “Moderato” as marked. However beautifully the individual moments are managed, and they certainly are, the work seems to me to be pulled out of shape. Possibly the Harrison/Elgar recording despatches certain sections somewhat briskly, but the Anthony Pini/Van Beinum and Tortelier/Boult, which both add just about a minute, seem to have all the time in the world to express the music. Still, as I say, the present performance is obviously a most deeply-felt affair.

Certain parts of Mackerras’s “Enigma” came as a revelation to me. He probes continually into the texture, bringing out single strands that are often passed over, his flexible phrasing sometimes lingering on small phrases or even single notes, yet never with any suggestion of wallowing for its own sake. I am grateful for the experience, yet I feel I would return to it only rarely, since a performance like this has to be taken as a commentary on more basic ones. Boult’s 1962 recording – I don’t know the later one – is certainly a basic interpretation but maybe a bit too plain-sailing. Back in 1936 Boult was amazingly electric and taut with a timing of only 26:08. Like certain Toscanini recordings, I find myself a bit breathless listening to it. But, whatever you think of the Mackerras for a basic interpretation, I think all Elgarians will find it richly rewarding. This is actually his second recording of the work; slightly earlier (1985) he coupled it with “Falstaff” for EMI.

If “Enigma” was perhaps not one of the Elgar works where Boult was supreme, his LP based around the “Wand of Youth” Suites was one of his finest. At first it seemed that Mackerras would be a little too bright and chirpy. Boult finds a Schubertian melancholy in the “Serenade” which Mackerras misses, for instance. But then Mackerras draws out the two slow numbers – “Fairy Pipers” and “Slumber Scene” – tenderly and exquisitely and it is as though he has now twigged on to the fact that this is not just pretty light music but great music. No less than Boult his fairies are mysterious and his giants frightening in the last piece of the First Suite. Moreover, he draws out the disturbing undercurrents of the march which opens the Second Suite as effectively as Boult. But it is in “Little Bells” and “Fountain Dance” that I find Mackerras has special insights. Perhaps it his operatic experience which allows him to paint vivid, imaginative little scenes by the side of which Boult seems a touch too literal. So it would seem a case of even honours – Boult preferable in the First Suite, Mackerras in the Second. If you have a taste for historical recordings, don’t miss Van Beinum in this music either (see link above).

One characteristic which Mackerras shares with Boult is that, when he records little-known music, it sounds as if he has known it all his life. I can’t think Mackerras has had many encounters with “The Starlight Express”, but he shows the same confident control of Elgarian ebb and flow as he does in “Enigma”. Terfel is in splendid form. Elgar sets up an unenviable challenge to the soprano in “I’m everywhere” with which Alison Hagley battles manfully; thereafter she is warm and sympathetic with a bright quality well suited to the music. The two are well matched in the final duets, magically paced by Mackerras. The excellent notes by Raymond Tuttle do not spoil the fun by telling you what very famous tune is going to well out of the orchestra just before the end, so I won’t either – there’s no enigma about this one!

And so to “Dream Children”. Mackerras is about 50% slower than Boult in the first piece, quite a bit slower in the second. I’m inclined to think these must be the outside tempi – in either direction – at which the music will work. Boult’s mastery of phrasing shows he can find tenderness, mystery and depth at a flowing pace, Mackerras shows he can savour every moment without getting stuck. If you have both you’ll certainly have a three-dimensional view of the music.

It looks as if Mackerras might be a more important interpreter of Elgar than is normally supposed. He also set down the Symphonies at this time; probably the uncertain survival of the Argo label reduced their circulation. Maybe Eloquence are eyeing these too?

Christopher Howell 

 




 


Advertising on
Musicweb


Donate and keep us afloat

 

New Releases

Naxos Classical
All Naxos reviews

Hyperion recordings
All Hyperion reviews

Foghorn recordings
All Foghorn reviews

Troubadisc recordings
All Troubadisc reviews



all Bridge reviews


all cpo reviews

Divine Art recordings
Click to see New Releases
Get 10% off using code musicweb10
All Divine Art reviews


All Eloquence reviews

Lyrita recordings
All Lyrita Reviews

 

Wyastone New Releases
Obtain 10% discount

Subscribe to our free weekly review listing

 

 


EXPLORE MUSICWEB INTERNATIONAL

Making a Donation to MusicWeb

Writing CD reviews for MWI

About MWI
Who we are, where we have come from and how we do it.

Site Map

How to find a review

How to find articles on MusicWeb
Listed in date order

Review Indexes
   By Label
      Select a label and all reviews are listed in Catalogue order
   By Masterwork
            Links from composer names (eg Sibelius) are to resource pages with links to the review indexes for the individual works as well as other resources.

Themed Review pages

Jazz reviews

 

Discographies
   Composer
      Composer surveys
   National
      Unique to MusicWeb -
a comprehensive listing of all LP and CD recordings of given works
.
Prepared by Michael Herman

The Collector’s Guide to Gramophone Company Record Labels 1898 - 1925
Howard Friedman

Book Reviews

Complete Books
We have a number of out of print complete books on-line

Interviews
With Composers, Conductors, Singers, Instumentalists and others
Includes those on the Seen and Heard site

Nostalgia

Nostalgia CD reviews

Records Of The Year
Each reviewer is given the opportunity to select the best of the releases

Monthly Best Buys
Recordings of the Month and Bargains of the Month

Comment
Arthur Butterworth Writes

An occasional column

Phil Scowcroft's Garlands
British Light Music articles

Classical blogs
A listing of Classical Music Blogs external to MusicWeb International

Reviewers Logs
What they have been listening to for pleasure

Announcements

 

Community
Bulletin Board

Give your opinions or seek answers

Reviewers
Past and present

Helpers invited!

Resources
How Did I Miss That?

Currently suspended but there are a lot there with sound clips


Composer Resources

British Composers

British Light Music Composers

Other composers

Film Music (Archive)
Film Music on the Web (Closed in December 2006)

Programme Notes
For concert organizers

External sites
British Music Society
The BBC Proms
Orchestra Sites
Recording Companies & Retailers
Online Music
Agents & Marketing
Publishers
Other links
Newsgroups
Web News sites etc

PotPourri
A pot-pourri of articles

MW Listening Room
MW Office

Advice to Windows Vista users  
Questionnaire    
Site History  
What they say about us
What we say about us!
Where to get help on the Internet
CD orders By Special Request
Graphics archive
Currency Converter
Dictionary
Magazines
Newsfeed  
Web Ring
Translation Service

Rules for potential reviewers :-)
Do Not Go Here!
April Fools




Return to Review Index

Untitled Document


Reviews from previous months
Join the mailing list and receive a hyperlinked weekly update on the discs reviewed. details
We welcome feedback on our reviews. Please use the Bulletin Board
Please paste in the first line of your comments the URL of the review to which you refer.