Elgar Symphony No 2 (extract) BBCSO Sir Adrian Boult

[stickwagger]

I believe that this version is Michael Kennedy's favorite. It's vital and flexible, remarkable for the era in which it was recorded.

[urregoluis]

I like it a lot and the version of Sir Colin Davis with the LSO recorded live October 2001!

[A60stock]

In my youth when I was promenader I heard Sargent, Boult and Colin perform this symphony with the BBCSO, all great interpreters.

In those far off days there was a close rapport between artists and the prommers. I recall Colin turning up at a church in SE London with members the orchestra to play at a promenader's wedding.

[A60stock]

Are you refferiing to the Lyrita performance? Its very majestic and is the performance I grew up with however the 1944 perfomance is unique primarily because of the circumstances at the time. When the recording session started Sir Henry Wood was in Bedford having just given Beethoven 7 with the BBCSO. By the time they came to record the second half of the second movement it was the day after Wood's funeral and the emotional charge is there to be heard in this and the the third movement.

[alambic1911]

The performance for 1944 is absolutely unbelievable! The bench mark for this symphony under Adrian Boult remains the 1968's version with the London Philharmonic Orchestra