Elgar's Hillside

[Mirror Image]

I saw Vasily Petrenko conduct "Scenes from the Bavarian Highlands" live in Liverpool. Very amusing piece, really - all drinking songs and machismo and somewhat comical caricature. A lot of fun in concert, not sure how often I'd play it on CD. (He also did the Second Symphony; it was the first time I'd ever heard either piece.)

Sounds like a cool work. I really bought this recording for The Black Knight, which I had heard excerpts of many years ago and enjoyed a lot. By the way, Symphony No. 2 is a masterpiece. A deeply personal work.

[Brian]

Yeah, I've come to love the Second Symphony and have listened to it many times, but when I lived in the UK, I hadn't heard it yet, and knew that I could go see it live with RLPO/Petrenko so decided to wait for the concert to experience it anew. That was part of a month-long stretch where I saw live, and heard for the first time, Elgar's Second (Liverpool), Mahler's Third (Warsaw) on the very next day, and Brian's Gothic (Proms). It's been downhill ever since  0:)

[Mirror Image]

Yeah, I've come to love the Second Symphony and have listened to it many times, but when I lived in the UK, I hadn't heard it yet, and knew that I could go see it live with RLPO/Petrenko so decided to wait for the concert to experience it anew. That was part of a month-long stretch where I saw live, and heard for the first time, Elgar's Second (Liverpool), Mahler's Third (Warsaw) on the very next day, and Brian's Gothic (Proms). It's been downhill ever since  0:)

Oh, yes, I remember you posting about these now. You seeing Brian's Gothic was definitely a once-in-a-lifetime experience I'm sure. I mean the sheer orchestral forces that's required to perform the work is nothing short of miraculous.

[71 dB]

So I've been revisiting Elgar's music and finding it more and more my thing.

Nice to hear that.

Such an incredible composer. I bought some new recordings, and a DVD, to celebrate my newfound enthusiasm for all things Elgar:

I have only some of what you bought and they are good. With Elgar it seems to vary who likes what. Someones likes Sinopoli, other Boult.

(my english is shit today because I am VERY exhausted. I have delivered christmas bottles the whole day at work!)

[Mirror Image]

Nice to hear that.

I have only some of what you bought and they are good. With Elgar it seems to vary who likes what. Someones likes Sinopoli, other Boult.

(my english is shit today because I am VERY exhausted. I have delivered christmas bottles the whole day at work!)

No problem, 71 dB. I know Elgar is one of your favorites and he's becoming one of mine as well. His music just hit me like a ton of bricks a few days ago. I can't even really describe how this metamorphosis occurred, but I'm thankful it did. There's so much raw passion in Elgar and beneath that gruff exterior lies an incredibly genuine, sad soul. There's always a sadness in Elgar's music even in the more ceremonial works like the Pomp & Circumstance marches. Elgar's music is of the highest order.

[madaboutmahler]

It's really great to hear of your enthusiasm for Elgar, John! Makes me very happy indeed!! I am agreement with everything you are saying!

[Mirror Image]

It's really great to hear of your enthusiasm for Elgar, John! Makes me very happy indeed!! I am agreement with everything you are saying!

Thanks, Daniel!

[TheGSMoeller]

John, I believe I remember you not thinking much of Elgar's music in the past, not that I'm calling you out at all, just curious as to what particular piece or detail about the music sparked your interest?

I've certainly had a second go at a composer before that turned into a love affair (Haydn) and the other way around with realizing my appreciation was more minimal than initially thought (Mahler, sorry Daniel).

Elgar has created some of the loveliest music that is deeply moving and powerful. Will be glad to have some further discussions with you about it.

[Archaic Torso of Apollo]

I saw Vasily Petrenko conduct "Scenes from the Bavarian Highlands" live in Liverpool. Very amusing piece, really - all drinking songs and machismo and somewhat comical caricature. A lot of fun in concert, not sure how often I'd play it on CD. (He also did the Second Symphony; it was the first time I'd ever heard either piece.)

I saw him conduct Cockaigne with the CSO a couple of weeks ago (and I really mean "saw," because I was sitting behind the orchestra and looking at the conductor from the front). Great fun, though I admit the DSCH 10th on the second half made an even bigger impression (not exactly a surprise). Would love to hear Petrenko tackle the Elgar symphonies someday.

[Mirror Image]

John, I believe I remember you not thinking much of Elgar's music in the past, not that I'm calling you out at all, just curious as to what particular piece or detail about the music sparked your interest?

I've certainly had a second go at a composer before that turned into a love affair (Haydn) and the other way around with realizing my appreciation was more minimal than initially thought (Mahler, sorry Daniel).

Elgar has created some of the loveliest music that is deeply moving and powerful. Will be glad to have some further discussions with you about it.

Oh, there's no doubt to have some speculation about my sudden love of Elgar's music, but, to be honest, it was many years coming. My history with Elgar's music isn't as detailed or even remotely interesting as probably many people's here, but I continued to try and try with Elgar for years only to come up with the feeling that the music was good but I was seriously missing something. I wish I could give you a work that triggered this newfound love and admiration I have for it. But Symphony No. 1 hit me pretty hard, but also just going through Barbirolli's set on EMI (still my go-to Elgar performances). I picked up on little moments in the music that revealed a deep, painful yearning. This aspect of Elgar's music attracted me and I didn't quite pick up on before. I mean I know this music well, Greg, but it's just I never really investigated or researched the man's history and the fact that he had hardly any musical training quite frankly astonished me and he came from such a humble background, but the psyche of Elgar is quite complex and, at times, troubled. He gave the music he created his heart and soul and this has become something I've come to appreciate, and admire, about his music. Anyway, it's hard to pinpoint how all of this just came about, but it's 100% real and I was listening to Symphony No. 2 (Davis, LSO Live) on my stereo this afternoon and my Dad came into my room and said "This sounds so familiar. I've heard this work before," and I turned to him and answered "Yeah, this is Elgar's Symphony No. 2." He replied "I should have known. Elgar was just an incredible composer." I just smiled and nodded. Elgar is awesome.

[TheGSMoeller]

Thanks a bunch for sharing, John. 


I'll probably throw on The Black Knight tonight, been a few since I've spun it. And of course his symphonies never stay too far away from my player. 


John, have you heard Boult's live performance of No.1? Recorded in 76 at the Proms, he was almost 90 and it's as energetic of a performance you'll here. I'm not big into applause in my recordings, but you can't deny the sheer joy that erupts from the audience, the final chord is barely over before they begin to celebrate.

[Mirror Image]

You're welcome, Greg. Here are all the Boult Elgar recordings I own:

[Mirror Image]

I should also say in addition to Boult, both C. and A. Davis, Barbirolli, Sinopoli, that I also enjoy Handley's Elgar recordings on EMI a lot as well.

[Mirror Image]

I don't know if anyone has seen this or not, but here's some footage of Elgar playing with his dogs. Looks like he's enjoying himself:

http://www.youtube.com/v/0y5LtycnkoM

I'm a dog man myself and the fact that Elgar loved dogs too apparently makes me like him even more. Very cool footage.

[Elgarian]

Une Voix dans le desert is quite remarkable and worth paying extra attention to. It's one of those pieces where, for the most part, a narrator speaks against a musical backdrop - an approach which I've never been particularly fond of in general; but then, halfway through (and with perfect dramatic positioning, arising from a landscape of wartorn desolation, amid the 'stillness of the great graveyards'), there's a soprano solo of such tender longing, sadness and hope that, once heard, will stay with you forever. Just five minutes - but worth buying a whole CD for, even if you don't like anything else on it. I'm listening to it now as I write this. Almost unbearable. And pure Elgar, at his most poignantly human.

I don't know the particular recording you've got here - though Susan Gritton is an Elgarian of distinction, so it should be good. My benchmark recording is this one, with the incomparable Teresa Cahill singing the soprano part:

[Karl Henning]

Welcome back, Alan.

[Elgarian]

Welcome back, Alan.

Thanks Karl, though I was never really away. Just quiet, popping in several times a week, but reading rather than talking.

[Karl Henning]

I should say, then, how well I appreciate "seeing" you.

Almost every day I see the spine of a thin Taschen volume on JMW Turner, and think, I should ring Alan . . . .

[Elgarian]

I recently discovered that my very first (and for a long time, only) recording of The Enigma Variations -  Sargent and the Philharmonia - is now available as a download from Amazon. My old LP was worn out decades ago and ditched, to be replaced with other versions. But now I could, if I wanted, download that seminal recording and listen to it again. It was my earliest introduction to Elgar at the age of 15 or so, and was one of a handful of recordings that transformed my musical identity.

Dare I listen to it now, I wonder? Especially now I know Monteux's unbelievably fine performance? There's much dithering going on.

[Elgarian]

Almost every day I see the spine of a thin Taschen volume on JMW Turner, and think, I should ring Alan . . . .

Well, two responses to that. First, given the general question 'should Karl ring Alan?', the answer would surely always be 'yes', from Alan's point of view. Second, just a few days ago I put the finishing touches to a rather tortuously-argued article for the Turner Society, having discovered in the process just how much Turner lore I'd forgotten in recent years! So how much sense you'd get out of me on the subject is debatable. But when did that sort of thing ever stop us?