Search - Edward Elgar, Richard Hickox, BBC National Orchestra of Wales :: Elgar: Symphony No. 3; Pomp and Circumstance March No. 6 [Hybrid SACD]

Perhaps the Best Elgar 3rd yet.

J. F. Laurson | Washington, DC United States | 12/09/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Anthony Payne spent almost 30 years trying to patch together Elgar's unfinished Third Symphony, with very impressive results, but results that are still hotly debated (more controversially than the various `performing versions' of Mahler's Tenth) today. It's much more convincing than the (fun) Elgar "Piano Concerto", but for all its quality, the second and third movements don't ring true. No performance will ever silence the debates over whether Payne's version is a success (as opposed to `mere attempt'), but this recording comes awfully close. It does so, because Hickox achieves to make the Symphony sound like ¬echt-Elgar, rather than collections of "Elgarian moments" strung together. The issue is made yet more interesting with the inclusions of two more Payne-elaborations: "So Many True Princesses Who Have Gone" and the Sixth Pomp & Circumstance March. The sound is unbeatable."