A lively, energetic performance, but this is an expensive w
Santa Fe Listener | Santa Fe, NM USA | 08/23/2007
(4 out of 5 stars)
"Almost as a ritual obligation every foreign conductor who arrives in England has a good chance of recording some Elgar. The First Sym. has attracted Solti, Sinopoli, Haitink, Slatkin, and Mackerras (an Austrailian) into the studio. If you add all the English conductors to the list, this work, however wonderful, has been done too often compared to its merits. (How many foreign conductors have recorded the Copland Third Sym. or Rhapsody in Blue outside America, or the music of Schmidt, Pfitzner, and Zemlinksy outside Germany?) In any event, Solti's leadership of the London Phil. led to this highly energetic reading, a welcome relief from the quasi-religious trudge that one usually encounters on native ground.
Decca helps by highlighting inner voices and providing a dynamic soundstage. The orchestra plays with idiomatic precision. I find Barbirolli's live readidng with the Halle Orch. on BBC Legends more heartfelt and emotionally true; by comparison, Solti is giving us an x-ray of the score. But there's no denying its visceral impact. The latest remastering opens up the sound, but there's still a bit of digital edge and glare to it. The main consideration this time around is probably price. Solti's reading is readily available in bargain packaging with Sym. #2 or in a multi-CD set of Elgar's music that also includes Britten's great account of The Dream of Gerontius. I'm not sure I would run out to pay extra for it.
The filler, "In the South," promises Italian sun but remains well within Elgar's comfortably overstuffed Edwardian style. Solti makes it sound as clear and energetic as the main work, though."
Track Listings (5) - Disc #1