In The South

And there was me thinking this might be a thread about Emsworth.............

Nigel

No! Alassio! [Italy]. Where Elgar visited before penning the work! It is a wonderful piece. Once again, like Falstaff, it is a tone poem in the Sibelius style though it has more in common with Richard Strauss's works than Sibelius for sure in terms of its sound-world. But it is both pictorial, and fully formed as abstract music. The programme is not necessary to enjoy it!! Elgar never gave a clear hint of what is the programme!!

Like "The Kingdom," it is hardly known today for reasons I cannot comprehend. Eventually it will become known well again I am sure!

ATB from George

I missed out the fact that this album also contains Boult's peerless account of the Second Symphony recorded in the Bedford Corn Exchange in 1944 with the BBC SO - one of EMI's very first Full frequency range recordings. Boult never made a finer recording of the Symphony and it remained competitive as a recording purely on musical balance and quality of sonority, for a good twenty years, whilst musically it has yet to be completley eclipsed. A remarkable achievement in its time and ever since. It seems like a live performance in its frission and drive, and yet is just as reflective on times as the composer's own splendid 1927 account!

For Elgarians I would recommend this set as as must have appendix, whatever other recordings you have in the works contained.

The 1954 [Decca] Violin Concerto recording with Campoli, Boult, and the LPO has aptly been described as the recording of the work that Elgar and its first soloist creator Fritz Kreisler never made. The only rival to my mind is the splemdid premiere [unabridged] recording with Albert Sammons and the Queen's Hall Orchestra under Henry Wood recorded by English Columbia in 1929, three years before the rightly famous Elgar recording with Menuhin on HMV...

ATB from George

You know, the Elgar Violin Concerto was one of the compositions that first really got me interested in classical music when I was at high school, and I've STILL never heard the Sammons or the Camploi! It's really quite shameful!!

EW

Dear EW,

Is your email working?

Mine is now,

georgefredrik@hotmail[dot]co[dot]uk

Send a line sometime, please.

ATB from George.

Hi George -

museyroom at yahoo dot co dot uk - I'm just about to dahs off out and I'm away for a couple of days - if you email and I don;t immediately reply that's why! I might have email access, if not I'll be home ~ Wednesday.

Hope you're well!

EW

Thinking just a bit further about what is contained in this album if you added Boult's 1949 LPO performance of the First Symphony [which mirrors the strengths found in the 1944 recording of the Second], and also bought Sargeant's wonderful 1945 recording of The Dream Of Gerontius with Heddle Nash [as Elgar said, "Rather Fine!"] in the title role you would only be short of the Enigma Variations among Elgar's greatest works. The choice for this would [among currently available recordings] fall with Sir John Barbiroli and the Halle in my view, though Boult's 1953 EMI LPO recording is crying out for reissue, and remains my favourite.

The First symphony and Gerontius mentioned above are currently issued in expert transfers on CD from Testamant.

And all in truly wonerful readings!

ATB from George

George,
I don't know the recording dates or venues, but Boult's recording of Enigma, together with his (IMO) unsurpassed Introduction and Allegro for Strings is available on CFP 4922. That is, unless it has been very, very recently withdrawn.
This particular Introduction and Allegro is unusual, possibly unique in that Boult uses the stereo recording and divided violins to clarify the interplay between the string sections. I have been told that Elgar also used violins in this manner and to me, it significantly adds to the enjoyment of the piece.
Whenever you compare stereo unfavourably with mono playback, this is the recording which immediately convinces me that you are wrong. It's only one example, I admit, but it's the one which jumps into my mind. It's a shame that Elgar's own recordings were all in mono!
To my mind, this Boult Enigma is on a par with Barbirolli's 1962 recording with the Philharmonia in the Kingsway Hall, while Barbirolli's London Sinfonia/Allegri Quartet Intro and Allegro (both on EMI 3 67918 2) does not quite match the Boult version.

Regards,
Ken

Dear Ken,

Boult used to place his musicians with violins divided left and right for first and second sections for a practical reason of balance. Both the top violin line and the second line which must fundamentally be equally audible and the same distance from the listener in a good seat. It has absolutely nothing to do with separating the lines in a concert hall where the sound at the listening seat is anything up to 90% once or twice reflected, and therefore not directly directional at all. It is interesting that critics of gramophone records have lit upon the wrong reason for Boult's favourite disposition of the orchestra, as often their priorities seem very divorced from the fundamental musical considerations!

The second violin line is especially vulnerable in the balance being usually in the octave below the first violin line, in a part of the violin's voice which is less brilliant and penetrating. Boult therefore felt that Beethoven, Elgar and others who had insisted on this arrangement were correct. It has precisely no significance except as a device for obtaining a good balance in the concert hall, though I agree that for listening on records it proves a diversion to hear two violin sections playing independently but in good ensemble, when this false division is emphasised by false stereo recording techniques.

I have only heard of one conductor being enthusiastic for the stereo effect in recordings. Ernest Ensemet commented on it sounding the same as being on the podium! In other words, quite different to the effect designed for the best seats in the house. It will be of interest to realise that the balance of musical lines is not good on the podium, and a conductor will set the music off [in an unknown hall] and walk to the back to ensure that the true intended balance is being created in the body [of the audience part] of the hall, a place where the impact of separating the violins side to side for example makes no difference from the directional point of view but guarantees that the players can easily judge their relative balance on the stage [off each other] so that they are perceived on an equal footing of loudness and projection in the hall. This guarantees that the second violins have a chance to self balance with the firsts and not having to account for the relatively subduing situation sat behind the firsts, which position produces and even more subdued effect, and, in loud full orchestral tuttis, the potential to completely loosing the second violin line. The fact that the second line is in a more subdued part of the violin voice has the effect of making this self balancing very easy once you give them this equal footing, as it it gives natural precedence to the usually greater importance of the higher line in the first violins without having to labour against a hall aoustic problem as well! It is facinating to see photos of recording sessions for mono with this division of violin one and two left and right, but what is well balanced for the hall will also be well balanced for a single channel...

Boult explained this approach in his book, "On Conducting." Michael Kennedy quotes the portion in Boult's book in his splendid biography of Boult. Boult's other concern was to prevent the issue of the bass-line reaching the audience earlier than the second violin line, which is a particular peculiarity of the Royal Festival Hall stage [built in the early 1950s], but apparent in other Halls as well! This can haapen where the celli and double basses are sitting where the second violins should.

On the various performances of Boult in the Enigma, the CFP recording was done for the World Record Club at a time in the early 1960s, when Boult was not regularly recording for EMI. I knew this performance many years ago on a mono LP, which a cousin owned. I quite agree that the Introduction and Allegro is wonderful in that recording!

As for the old EMI HMV Enigma from 1953, I prefer it to Boult's two later recordings, as mentioned from the World Record Club and EMI, which are currently out on Great Recordings Of The Century! I don't know where the World record Club recordings where made, but I would suspect Watford Town Hall, which was regularly used by non-EMI recordings in London in the 1950s and 60s. In those days Decca and EMI used the Kingsway Hall, which, like Watford, had the necessary organ for recording Enigma.

I expect you will think that I have spent a lot of time investigating the existing recordings of Elgar's music. As a child, Elgar was my favourite composer! I still love the music, but have moved to my favourites being Bach and Haydn nowadays!

ATB from George