American Performances of Elgar: Volume 2

courtesy of Naxos of America

A little less than two weeks ago, SOMM RECORDINGS released Elgar from America: Volume II. This has been the latest result of the efforts of audio restoration engineer Lani Spahr to remaster recordings of the music of Edward Elgar. Those following the above hyperlink will see that Amazon.com is currently distributing the album only through download, but the download includes a PDF file of the accompanying booklet. Given that SOMM is based in the United Kingdom, one can appreciate any number of difficulties with distributing the physical version in our country, where even the United States Postal Service seems to be laboring under the vagaries of our current government.

All of the performances on the second volume were recorded during performances by the NBC Symphony Orchestra for broadcast from Studio 8H at 30 Rockefeller Plaza. However, only one of the three performances is conducted by that ensemble’s Music Director Arturo Toscanini, the Opus 47 coupling on an Allegro with an Introduction scored entirely for strings. That performance was broadcast on April 20, 1940. The other two selections were broadcast in February of 1945 with Malcolm Sargent as guest conductor. The other guest artist was violinist Yehudi Menuhin, playing the Opus 61 violin concerto for the February 25 broadcast. One week earlier Sargent conducted the broadcast of the Opus 40 concert overture entitled “Cockaigne (In London Town).” The CD marks the first commercial release of all three of these broadcast performances.

According to the available documents, RCA released only one recording of Toscanini conducing Elgar with the NBC Symphony Orchestra. That release was of a performance of the Opus 36 “Enigma” variations, which took place in Carnegie Hall on December 10, 1951. The recording of Opus 47 took place over a decade earlier; and I suspect that the RCA bean counters decided that it was not a “salable commodity.”

On the other hand the score was presented as an “essential study” document in the orchestration course I took as an undergraduate. (Mind you, the professor teaching the course was British. Much of our attention to music for strings involved Elgar and Benjamin Britten, with Tchaikovsky’s Opus 48 serenade added for good measure.) Between all the time I spent with the score and incessant playing of the Angel (now EMI) recording of John Barbirolli, I had that music pretty much internalized.

The piece might be described as an abbreviated concerto for string quartet and orchestra. On my recording Barbirolli actually recruited a separate ensemble, the Allegri Quartet, to perform with the Sinfonia of London. However, on the only occasion I have had to experience this music in concert, the quartet members were recruited from the string section of the San Francisco Symphony. I cannot remember who conducted; but he placed the quartet at the rear of the stage, behind all of the other strings. I found that this totally undermined the concertante rhetoric of the composition, and I am still waiting to encounter a more satisfying performance.

Toscanini also recruited the quartet from his own ensemble. The violinists were Mischa Mischakoff and Edwin Bachmann, the violist was Carlton Cooley, and the cellist was Frank Miller. The interplay between the quartet and the orchestra could not have been better recorded. Elgar had a keen sense of texture in working with this instrumentation, and this is a recording through which the attentive listener will appreciate the subtleties of his textures.

Menuhin’s history with Opus 61 goes all the way back to 1932, when he made his first recording of the concerto with Elgar conducting. Readers may recall that I have not been a Menuhin enthusiast, and my coverage of the massive The Menuhin Century collection was more than a bit of a slog. However, if I had trouble finding high points in my listening experiences, the recording of the Elgar concerto was definitely one of them. Menuhin was just as expressive in interpreting this concerto with Sargent as he had been when performing with Elgar himself.

Nevertheless, Sargent’s high point comes at the beginning of the album with his account of the Opus 40 concert overture. That music abounds with wit from beginning to end, and the score definitely captures the coarser side of London life. Sargent clearly enjoyed the opportunity to dismiss any stuffy stereotypes; and listening to him let his hair down (figuratively, at least) is a real pleasure, even if the Studio 8H facilities did not allow for the roaring organ in the coda to enter into the mix. (The organ in the Royal Albert Hall is probably best equipped for that coda.)