Elgar Symphony No 2 (extract) BBCSO Sir Adrian Boult

This extract from the first movement is from Beulah 5PD15 BOULT'S ELGAR
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"t's probably not too surprising if I give pride of place to these Boult recordings of Elgar or that I make the Second Symphony my Reissue of the Month. Though Boult now seems with hindsight to have been the greatest interpreter of Elgar, it was not always so -- one correspondent to The Gramophone in 1938 avowed that his interpretation of the Second Symphony had put him off the work for life... this 1944 recording has a great deal going for it in such a fine transfer." Brian Wilson at Music Web International

Robert Matthew Walker writes in an Elgar Sesquicentenary Re-issues Round Up published in International Record Collector November 2007:
"this is the best interpretation of the eventual five he made. There is an intensity here from the latter half of the first movement through to the end of the work which is utterly gripping - the slow movement is so intensely moving...there is an almost indefinable element of intense conviction which no other recording, including Elgar's, has."

Andrew Achenbarch writes of the Elgar Second Symphony in The Gramophone for May 2006 :
" This is a majestic rendering and arguably the most penetrating Elgar Second ever committed to disc. "

" The muscular suppleness of the performance may come as a surprise, leaving all others standing as Elgar resurrects the spirit of delight by strength of will. This could be Toscanini at his most energetic. ...Boult's 1944 performance, produced by Walter Legge in clean and well-balanced 78rpm sound, is still the one to combine the best performance of all worlds. It embraces passion and precision, lithe strength of line and an atmospheric delicacy epitomised by the way Sir Adrian guides Elgar's final vision softly and gently to its resting place. " - David Nice in Building A Library in BBC Music December 2005

"Boult knew the work intimately; Elgar countenanced his interpretation, critics celebrated it and there are five different recordings to choose from. This was the first and almost certainly the best, a judiciously shaped account, intensely voiced and with a luminosity of texture that recalls Toscanini in his heyday " The Independent, 1 March 1996

"No shortlist of great versions of Elgar's Second Symphony on disc is complete without this 1944 recording... Perhaps the most striking thing about Sir Adrian's performance is his justness of tempo throughout... This excellently remastered disc should find a place on every Elgar lover's shelves " Classic CD May 1996

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• classical

[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.

[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.

[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