New recordings coming!

Thanks for this George, have just ordered them from Amazon.ca. They are not released over here until July 9, but a good bargain at $38 CAD.

Tim

Dear Timbo,

For me the fascinating aspect will be to listen to the completely unknown to me recordings of rarities, plus re-acquainting myself with the older recordings that I used to have access to on 78s, but not listened to since 1975.

The other good aspect will be to fill in the gaps in the stereo series that I have never had.

Considering the stereo set alone would formerly have cost many time the price of this set to assemble, I think it is compelling for all who enjoy Elgar's music.

Happy listening when you get your set!

ATB from George

I'll add that in the same package from Amazon is coming the Parvo Berglund Sibelius symphony cycle with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra [EMI], and also the Klemperer set of Twentieth Century music, which will be a real challenge. Some of the music I love such as Petruska, and Hindemithe's Nobelissima Visione.

Other Sibelius symphony cycles that I have are from Anthony Collins, which is mostly superb, though I find the Third Symphony too rushed. Barbirolli, where there is no weakness at all, but some controversially slow tempi. And the partial cycle from Robert Kajanus [Sibelius' old and faithful friend and musical confidant], where the music making is a phenomenon, though the actual orchestral playing is on times sketchy to say the least in these première recordings. The Third Symphony is a towering work in Kajanus' hands though, and well played, though the work is enigmatic to say the least. It is my favourite Sibelius symphony, though the very unpopular Fourth is often as not my choice. It out-does any other early Twentieth Century Symphony for bleakness and a sense of Northern cold, both on the surface, emotionally though with a very deep warmth underneath, and chilly sound-world.

I have Beecham in the Fourth as well, and this is a strange performance - it brings a degree of warmth to  the sound world of the symphony that is not entirely what I find in the music myself. Barbirolli manages to bring a terrific and terrifying power to it, and in this music tempo is less important than pulse and a sense of forward movement, however stately. Unfortunately Kajanus never recorded the Fourth.

Another surprising performance I adore is Sir Adrian Boult in the Seventh! Not quite what you might expect if you believed he was best at English music!

The Klemperer Edition is so massive that I am getting them one at a time, at least till the Autumn, when I'll select the ones that I actually still want.

I can see no Bruckner, Wagner, or Mahler coming, though!

ATB from George

Sadly the delivery was made by Amazon themselves and not the Royal Mail.

Either a redelivery tomorrow, or a third attempt on Saturday.

Spoke to a very polite and effective operator at Amazon about options.Good service, for sure.

But the anticipation is nail-biting!

ATB from George

They've arrived!

All now in iTunes. I realise that I have owned almost all these [except the 78 recordings] on LP, and so I have not had the chance to listen to them since 1992, when I sold all bar 50 out of 900 to help finance the restoration of my old London made double-bass - circa 1770 - which decision was the right one at the time! It was a great instrument that  caused my playing to develop to bring out the instrument's power, tone and articulation.

They never were so fine sounding as this though!

This is music making that is deservedly legendary. Only Boult's almost complete lack of charisma has really stood in the way of their wide appreciation, but now all we have is the recordings, and on their own account they document some of the finest Elgar performances committed to disc.

With 19 CDs to get a grip on, I'll be listening rather a lot over the coming days!

ATB from George

Thanks George, I love listening to the older recordings and it's thanks to people like you who can point me in the right direction. At present I have a lot of Wilhelm Furtwangler recordings and my favourite is still Brucker symphony 5. Still exploring though and wading through my Vaughn Williams box set.

All the best

Tim

Dear Timbo,

Of the Bruckner Symphonies, I think the Fifth is my favourite almost always!

I have a glorious live Vienna Philharmonic performance from about 1968 with Klemperer, which makes a fascinating contrast with Furtwangler's live Vienna recording [done I think at the Salzburg Festival] let alone his much more untamed Wartime Berlin one! I had both of these Furtwangler recordings many years ago, though I became less happy with them after the sane, wonderfully drawn account from Klemperer in extreme old age. Slow tempi do suit this music and and the VPO respond with amazing playing of such luminosity!

Of the Elgar recordings under Boult, it is clear that EMI have not lost the knack of getting the best best out of their recordings "in the vault!" Absolutely first class  transfers that do not attempt to make the old sound knew, but at the same time preserve the clarity and great musical balances that were a special feature of the older style of recording in the mono era.

Boult's mastery as a conductor is fully confirmed in such recordings.

ATB from George

Thanks George - I will seek out the recording you mention. I also have Bruckner's 5th by Chailly (spelling) - RSO Berlin, Sir George Solti - Chicago Symphony (record only) and Gunter Wand - Kohler Radfunk Symphony but nothing comes close to the Furtwangler version, it seems to go so quickly because it really gets my attention and it's in mono!

Tim

This Boult set is a revelation - even more than I expected. These modern transfers are a revelation of nuance and subtlety. Boult was as subtle and great a musician as any of his showier colleagues.

I listened to the 1944 recording of Elgar's Second Symphony, and could hardly believe that such a performance could emerge as fresh as a daisy after 69 years.

I once had an EMI LP transfer of it, where the tone was fierce, the expression seemingly two dimensional, and all in all not living upto the sonic of the original 78s.The effect was acidic and hard edged, but in this CD release we are treated to something so lucid that one could believe it was a recording that is almost modern! Clearly the memory of the 78 originals was not rose tinted ... The ending is as tender as could be imagined, but without a hint of self satisfaction in the music - not remotely sweet, but rather poignant and piquant - just stoic  ...

The balances are exemplary, the phrasing is sometimes gloriously tough as befits a much less comfortable work than the image of a late complacent "Imperial" last gasp before the Great War. And Boult was active as musician playing Elgar and Holst in remarkable concerts during that time.

The 1953 Enigma Variations recording is as gentle [yet as firmly etched, musically,] as memory served me, but now in a free and open sonic that lets every nuance through in the big sweep. Like Klemperer, you can hear the last chords of the music in the opening phrases, such is the sweep and swing of these performances .. Amazing.

To consider the Klemperer Twentieth Century set, the music remains for me still difficult, but with performances such as these they present a kind invitation!

In this set is a fascinating hour and half biography in sound, and I marvel at the loyalty and affection shown to Klemperer by those who worked with him.

Well, perhaps Klemperer can lead me into Mahler and Bruckner yet. Of course I am already hooked by the live Vienna Philharmonic recording of the Bruckner Fifth ...

I could do with a week off, but never mind!

ATB from George

This brings back fond memories.

My late uncle was a first violinist in the BSO and as I child I remember going to concerts where Parvo Berglund was the conductor.  This would have been in the (now sadly demolished) Winter Gardens in Bournemouth.  They were great evenings, my uncle would carefully choose which concerts were suitable, nothing too heavy.  

My daughter has a school trip next week to go and see them, It reminds me I should go more often, we are lucky to have a first class orchestra on our doorstep.

Richard

Dear Richard,

The Berglund-Bournemouth set is a marvel. This is a way with Sibelius that really commands attention! Clear sighted and lucid in detail, but more than anything full of steady forward momentum - sweep and swing!

I was lucky enough to attend a Berglund-Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra performance in the Cheltenham Town Hall. I was a guest of the Orchestra and sitting in the very best seating  in the middle and a third of the way back in a row of half a dozen reserved for orchestra VIPs!

I was sitting next to a very smart looking lady who was obviously there with a much younger man. They were involved in a serious conversation before the concert started. Just two symphonies, Schubert's Fifth and one of the later Shostakovitch ones in the second half. The Schubert  performance was one of those live performances that was so good as to be unforgettably great!

The very distinguished lady saw that I had been utterly delighted with it, and asked me what I thought was so good! I said that I thought that Meastro Berglund was one of the true masters of the orchestra, and that the BSO had really become a world class orchestra during his chief conductorship there. It was so gratifying to see the band respond so well to their former chief!

She agreed, and then surprised me by introducing herself as, "Madame Berglund, and this is my son ...!"

I wish someone had told me first that I would be seated next to the conductor's wife for all that!

Another BSO story. I used to have double bass lessons from the Principal bass player, and would drive the 120 miles from Worcester to Blandford Forum where he lived with wife and two young children for a nine am. lesson [always on a Saturday, usually at fortnightly intervals]. This was an eight plus hour outing for an hour long lesson, so quite an investment in time for me, but I was honoured as my teacher hated teaching and at the time I was his only pupil.

At the time I had the loan of a superb double bass bow by Paul Voigt, and these are as rare as they are prized by players, and this one particular Saturday I was invited to attend a concert in the Poole Arts Centre, where the main music was Holst's The Planets. I was at the afternoon rehearsal, having already had my morning lesson. And then in the evening I was at the concert, and invited to the Green Room to meet some of the players! Well that was great fun as well.

I got home at about half past one in the Sunday morning!

Fantastic memories!

ATB from George

Nineteen CDs from Boult, and four apiece from Berglund and Klemperer!

A feast for sure, and so far some very satisfactory discoveries! Sorry about that!

The Boult set is crammed with great Elgarian performances of a sort that seem rarer these days. Realistically paced for clarity and momentum. Elgar is not like Bruckner or Mahler in the sense that a slow tempo can make his music sound grandiose and noisy, and in fact like sub-par Richard Strauss.

A phenomenal discovery has been the LPO recording of the Introduction and Allegro from 1961,which was previously unknown to me and so much finer that the later one, which used to be on side two of the Torterier/Boult recording of the Cello Concerto. I never liked it on the LP, and the decade older recording [originally issued on World Record Club- an EMI owned outfit] is exemplary in playing and recording. Fascinating then to make a side by comparison to the late 1930s recording that was Boult's first recording of the music.  This bristles with energy and rather at the expense of cogency in my view. It is astoundingly well played,and recorded in the very dense way that some 78s are without a hint of ambience, which altogether leads to an overwrought effect in musical terms. The early stereo recording has everything right. That last one is relatively lacking in élan from the players and the performance misses the unforced but inevitable forward thrust of the earlier stereo effort. It is a very difficult work to bring off in reality, though Barbirolli managed the trick more than once for the recording microphone!

As fascinating to me is the choice of no less than four recordings of the Enigma Variations.

Similarly to the Introduction and Allegro, I would not say the 1930s BBC SO Enigma Variations recording has not much going for it apart from the most extra-ordinary orchestral virtuosity. The tempi are not integrated into a full thrust from start to finish with some strangely judged and over fast moments, such as Nimrod, which is a treated as an uncomfortable jog-trot.

By 1953 Boult had discovered that just a notch back on the tempo brings a massive dividend.

Of course Boult was initially handicapped by a literal view of the metronome markings of Elgar himself, and these are actually - like Beethoven's - certainly open to doubt. Even Elgar himself described some of them as "too fast," once he heard the music played by someone else, or by himself in recordings!

So I have touched on two recordings that are more or less not compelling for a start - though fascinating for all that. Plus one that is not quite as fine as it should have been.

And that is it! The rest is pure gold!

As for Parvo Berglund's Bournemouth performances of Sibelius, it would be idle to single one performance out for special praise as they are consistently well judged as to tempi and balance, and a sense of communication without a hint flashy style, and it soon dawns on me that he was as great a master of Sibelius as any who made recordings. He equals Kajanus in depth in the [enigmatic] Third Symphony, and that is a supreme compliment if ever there was one about his music making.

The Klemperer set is rather special, as well as somewhat surprising. It would be hard to guess that the director was the same maestro who recorded Beethoven, and Mahler in such a monumental style on occasions, as here we are treated to music that needs to be very carefully and idiomatically handled to make its impact fully felt. Kurt Weill's Suite from the Thre'penny Opera is treated as deftly as could be imagined with its very light scoring and almost jazz influenced idiom, as well as its barbed piquancy!

Hindemith's Nobelissma Visione is wonderfully wrought. Gravely beautiful and catches the melancholia of the music without a hint of stateliness that would only undermine the heartfelt expression of it. Pulcinella is equally done with a complete grasp of the idiom, though this is neo-classical Stravinsky, rather than the thrusting composer of the Rite Of Spring for example.

Unfortunately EMI have not included Klemperer's delightfully eccentric recording of Petrushka! Never mind, that can come again one day. It is out on Testament, but costing as much as the four EMI discs here.

Altogether these three sets have been bringing immense enjoyment over the last few days.

I recommend each of them as containing the kind of recorded performances that illuminate the music played with greatness, and a profound insight. Performance that will be enjoyed for years without seeming to loose their value.

ATB from George

Hi George,

You've mentioned 78s a few times in this thread. You might be interested in having a look at the transfers of 78s onto CD done by Yves St-Laurent (no relation to the fashion designer) over at 78experience. There are a few recordings from Elgar, but not those that you mentioned above.

Yves is very dedicated to capturing the 78 experience on CD ; here is how he does it :

Dear Jan,

Some of the music making on 78 era recordings really does speak to us in a way that seems impossible to imagine in the sanitary perfection [with far too much editing and post production work] of today's recording studio.

And it is true that the best of the 78 recordings are technically often the equal and occasionally superior to those made on analogue tape and issued on LPs.

The trouble is the surface noise that is inherent in shellac discs.

But this is not in the master parts,and if a good set of master metals still exists, then new silent surface pressing can be made, thus eliminating the need for de-clicking,and filtering out recording noise artefacts.

Many of EMI's 78s are perfectly preserved, and when the company pulls out all the stops on a restoration the results can be stunning. The independent transfer engineers must work from shellac pressings and some have achieved superb results as well.

The issue of choosing the correct stylus for a given pressing is related to the fact that every side would be cut with a new cutting stylus,and naturally these were all slightly different in profile!

Trial and error is required to select the correct stylus for effecting the transfer to preserve the musical impact while catching the least amount of surface noise.

Centring the discs is vital, but if well done then 78s tend to better pitch stability than tape or LPs.

EMI use an oversized transfer turntable that allows for the groove to be correctly centred even if the actual hole in the middle of the disc is eccentric.

Longer term pitch stability on 78s can be an issue with recordings made on a lathe driven with an electric motor. The torque of the motors in the 1920s was too small to over-come the friction of the cutting head stylus, so that the recording would [once the cutter was lowered] stabilise at 78 rpm, but gradually rise as the friction load decreased during the coarse [as the moment decreased due to the lower lever action as the distance from the centre] to a speed of sometimes over 80 rpm.

If played back at a constant speed the replayed pitch of the side drops audibly.

Fortunately EMI used a very robust gravity [weight-driven] motor that was powerful enough for the friction induced slowing of the cutting lathe to be insignificant. The gradual speeding up of the side was initially useful as it was counteracted by the same phenomenon when replayed using a heavy pick-up arm and a spring motor in early gramophones, and only became a problem with light weight pick-ups, where the playback TT could maintain a steady speed in replay.

The only way that 78s can be improved in audible fashion is EQ correction, and in this sense all proper transfers are actually subjected to re-EQ filtering, or else the bass would be out-sized compared to everything else if replayed via a modern LP phone-stage pre-amp! And even so not a flat rsponse if played exactly as encoded originally.

Keith Hardwick, and AC Griffith have written very helpful essays on this topic, which has fascinated me from an eleven year old ... some forty years ago.

I have even made some transfers myself, though without soffistcated equipment!

ATB from George

And now I have the Petrushka recording, and very good it is. Apparently EMI were most unwilling to make the recording, and this is a not a quite finished studio effort, but it is far more than just a curiosity. Issued by Testament at mid price.

I have also ordered a box of Cathedral Organ recordings made by HMV in the 1960s with such eminent musicians as Sumsion at Gloucester Cathedral for example, each playing to their strengths. Sumsion was one of the first to make efforts to promote the Elgar Organ Sonata, which is in the set. It will be a particular pleasure to re-acquaint myself with Dr. Melville Cooke's recording from 1966 in Hereford Cathedral where he mainly played modern French repertoire!

Unfortunately the Organ series has not arrived yet!

ATB from George

Totally unexpected, but the Organ series box arrived just minutes ago. The Hereford recordings are now ripped to iTunes .... staggering ...

More later ...

ATB from George