Search - Frederick Harvey, Edward Elgar, Lawrance Collingwood :: The Lighter Elgar

Collingwood's miraculously atmospheric Elgar

Scriabinmahler | UK | 03/27/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"It's a shame that this CD includes only half of the original miniature Elgar recordings by Collingwood, released on LP with the picture of a boy & bicycle, which included the most heart-felt and magical performance of The Serious Doll from Nursery Suite (the most sublime flute playing you can imagine!). Each work on this cd, conducted by Collingwood, is unsurpassed in its noble beauty and warmth of expression. Dream Children for example, is miraculously atmospheric and other-worldly (probably impossible to perform this piece better then this). Frederick Harvey's rendition of Organ-Ginder's songs is also hard to beat. Bryn Terfel made wonderful recording of the same songs with Mackerras, but still can not match the deeply moving and imaginative reading by Harvey.



In contrast, Marriner's accounts of Elgar miniatures sound very conventional and business-like.

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Delightful little bon-bons from Elgar

Jeffery L. Smith | New Orleans, LA United States | 11/19/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I first bought "The Lighter Elgar" from the MHS in cassette form about 25 years ago. It was only about 45 minutes long, but each track was a gem. I have finally found this album in CD format with about twice as many tracks on it. It contains all of the original tape and then again as many other tracks. If you like light British music that doesn't sound like marching band music, you will probably like it. Tracks 9 to the end are the original tape tracks. You won't find some of this music anywhere else, or at least anywhere I've looked, and I've looked for 25 years."