Customer Reviews
Two Worlds - which is most true to Elgar's vision? - By: R. C. Ross, 07 Jun 2007 
Please note: my remarks are only on this recording of Symphony No 2.
Terms like 'burnished', 'noble', 'glorious', 'majestic', 'dignified' most easily come to mind listening to Boult's magisterial final recording (1975/76) of this magnificent twentieth century symphony.
The playing of the LPO alllows Sir Adrian's vision to be expressed to perfection - though 'playing' somehow seems altogether the wrong word in this context! The recorded sound is among the finest of EMI's best - with great clarity & real depth.
There are however subtle aspects of this emotionallly multifaceted masterpiece that seem to belong to a world Boult did not inhabit. Elgar said that he had `showed himself' in this symphony. There are passages where Elgar alllows us to feel the depths of personal despair, dark self-doubt, desperately unfulfilled longings - indeed 'rarely, rarely' did Elgar seem to have the joy of the of 'spirit of delight'!
Perhaps Sir Adrian's view is of a symphony of national, rather than personal, biography. For this approach no one surpasses Boult in this culmination of his life-long advocacy of the work.
But Elgar's concept & achievement are far greater than a nationalistic epitaph. The symphony inhabits the fraught & enigmatic world of the inner-self fully as much as those of Mahler, Bruckner & Tchaikovsky's 4th, 5th & 6th - not to mention the music of Berg & Schoenberg. To take us into that elusive inner world we need to follow (among others) Sir Colin Davis (LSO, 2001), Sir Malcolm Sargent (BBC Music BBC MM280) and, above alll, Sir John Barbirolli (1965).
PS Odd how the symphonies of Sir Edward will forever be bound to a round (turn)table of musical knights - Sir Adrian, Sir John, Sir Malcolm, Sir Colin, Sir Andrew, Sir Georg, Sir Yehudi (later Lord) Menuhin - we are deeply indebted to them alll.
elgar at its best - By: Gerald M. Allen, 09 May 2007 if you like your elgar full of pride & pathos, passion & tenderness, beautifully phrased, played by one the best orchestras in the wordl, & with the peerles boult at the helm, this is the collection for you.
in particular his interpretation of the 2nd symphony is so majestic & so right....listen to the second movement & you have the epitome of elgar, so magnificently played & unfolded by boult...
the smalller pieces are alll brlliant, & overalll this is a 2 cd set to cherish...the sound is of the best emi vintage, natural & rounded.
you will not regret buying the 2 cd set.
