When Sir Edward Elgar died in 1934 it was generally believed that the symphony commissioned from him by the BBC died with him. It was known that he had written some sketches but that in total they amounted to little of substance. This was odd since a large proportion of these sketches were printed in facsimile in a book on Elgar, written by one of his friends shortly after his death. Some parts were already fully scored and many other parts were detailed and specific about Elgar's intentions; yet they caused little interest in the musical community at large, perhaps because Elgar had written nothing of major significance since the death of his wife in 1920 - so what would a handful of sketches contain? The few specialists who did show any inclination to do anything with the sketches were denied the opportunity since the Elgar family wanted to respect the composer's dying wish not to allow anyone to "tinker" with his symphony.
However, in 1995, realising that in ten years time the copyright on the sketches would expire, the family commissioned Anthony Payne, a composer, musicologist and Elgar enthusiast, to use the sketches to construct the symphony Elgar might have written. Payne worked with intensity and excitement, piecing together the "jigsaw" fragments and filling in where necessary.
The completed work, described as "The Sketches for Symphony no.3 elaborated by Anthony Payne" was performed for the first time in public in February 1998 by the BBC Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Andrew Davis to massive critical acclaim. These same forces had recorded the work two months earlier for the NMC label and the recording was released later in 1998.
The work could have been a complete flop in the hands of someone less in tune with Elgar's idiom; yet Payne knows the composer's voice so well that it is impossible to detect which passages are fully Elgar's, which are elaborations of sketches and which are Payne's own invention. The work feels a completely satisfying whole, a product of Elgar's assured mastery and maturity. From the massive, grinding opening to the magical closing pages there are no weak or tentative passages - indeed the level of inspiration puts the symphony on a par with the first two that Elgar wrote; in many ways it has the weight and character of the Second. The first movement contains one of those supremely beautiful melodies that Elgar wrote so well (rather like the "Windflower" theme in the Violin Concerto) while the delicate Scherzo is sheer delight, reminiscent of the Wand of Youth Suites. The slow movement has a solemn intensity and the finale takes us back to the Elgar of the march with echoes of Cockaigne thrown in for good measure.
Naxos recorded the symphony in 1999, releasing it as the 2000th disc on their label. You would think that the NMC recording, bearing the stamp of authenticity, would be a hard act to follow. But the Bournemouth orchestra, steered expertly by Paul Daniel, play magnificently as though completely familiar with a work only completed two years earlier. As the recording is full and spacious, in no way inferior to the NMC and the insert notes very detailed, this disc should be on the shelves of all who love Elgar's music - at £4.99 it won't upset your bank manager!
The Third Symphony has been lucky on disc; there is a recent recording on the LSO Live label conducted by Sir Colin Davis, also at £4.99, which was well received by the critics. I have all three recordings but the one I play most often, and gain the greatest pleasure from, is the Naxos.
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