Track Listings (5) - Disc #1| All Artists: Edward Elgar, Sir John Barbirolli, Halle Orchestra Title: Elgar: Introduction & Allegro for Strings; Symphony No. 1 Members Wishing: 0 Total Copies: 0 Label: BBC Legends Release Date: 11/26/2002 Album Type: Original recording remastered Genre: Classical Style: Symphonies Number of Discs: 1 SwapaCD Credits: 1 UPC: 684911410624 |
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Search - Edward Elgar, Sir John Barbirolli, Halle Orchestra :: Elgar: Introduction & Allegro for Strings; Symphony No. 1
 | Edward Elgar, Sir John Barbirolli, Halle Orchestra Elgar: Introduction & Allegro for Strings; Symphony No. 1 Genre: Classical
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CD ReviewsELOQUENT PERFORMANCE, TINGED WITH SADNESS Klingsor Tristan | Suffolk | 03/29/2007 (5 out of 5 stars) "Does the knowledge that Sir John was to die within a few days of this public performance at the 1970 King's Lynn Festival colour our view of it? Did he conduct that day sub specie mortis, expecting this to be his final performance? It is easy to read things into these two performances with the benefit of hindsight that may not really be there. Nevertheless, it is hard not to hear an autumnal glow, a touch of sadness and regret, even in the amazingly virile leaping lines of the Allegro in the Introduction & Allegro that were not present in his famous recording with the Sinfonia of London strings. And the Symphony does seem to provide us with an interpretation even more profound than his commercial recordings of a work that he loved dearly throughout his life. There is an intensity to the slow movement that is second to none. This is bred from an orchestra (JB's own Halle) and conductor who knew each other and their interpretation of this work intimately, who had years of mutual experience of the work behind them. This allows for a flexibility that is necessarily rare - those little relaxations or heightening of tension in tempi, those moments when it's hard to tell if the conductor is reacting to a particularly felicitous turn of phrase from a soloist or vice versa. It is there from the very first moments of the work when, even as the audience is still settling down, the orchestra creeps in with the pp drum roll and the initial heavy tread of the motto theme. It is still there at the climax of the Finale when even Sir John can surely never have achieved quite the same passion as the orchestra positively overflows and cascades colour over the same motto theme. Tinged with sadness over the sad events of the next few days though it may be, this remains - objectively as well as emotionally - a great performance of this landmark symphony that held a very special place in Barbirolli's heart. I don't think he would have been sorry that this was the work that turned out to be the last he would conduct - nor that his beloved Halle produced such a magnificent performance of it." A live performance to make you an Elgar believer Santa Fe Listener | Santa Fe, NM USA | 12/18/2005 (5 out of 5 stars) "I find myself listening to the Elgar First once a decade, which is about as often as it is programmed in the U.S. In England one can hardly go a month without hearing it performed somewhere. Elgar creates pillows of sound and goes on ambling journeys without an obvious destination. Barbirolli overcomes this wooliness with an emotional, highly varied, involving performance. I heard this CD while walking through Tower Records and bought it on the spot, knowing I would never need another. If you are already a believer, no doubt there are half a dozen performances to compare this one to. The usually rough-and-ready Halle Orch. sounds totally committed here, and the BBC has given them large-scale, though a bit hollow, sound. This performance doesn't succeed in the fine details anyway. Its sweep and drama carry the day, something Barbirolli injects into the score--I'm not sure they're really there. As the reviewer below points out, Barbirolli conducted this concert in July, 1970, a few weeks before he died at a comparatively young 71. This is a stirring farewell. Five stars. The symphony is the main attraction, which is good since the opening Introduction and Allegro lurches too much and finds the Halle strings in less than stellar shape. Three stars." Elegance, conviction and eloquence Hiram Gomez Pardo | Valencia, Venezuela | 05/04/2006 (5 out of 5 stars) "After Adrian Boult, there has not been any other conductor who glorifies with such golden splendor the music of Sir Edward Elgar. His interpretative gifts, the sense of the span, the unequaled scent of the arresting melodies, the whole exposition of the enormous lyrical richness find in Barbirolli a supreme expositor.
Do not hesitate just for a second. Those recordings are pure gold. " |