Elgar: Wand of Youth Suites Nos 1 and 2

Advantages: Committed performance, spacious recording, low price
Disadvantages: None

...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... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: Good show, hurrah for the British Empire!
Disadvantages: Hum, humph...

...been only nos. 1 and 4). But thankfully, they have now rectified this omission on this recording. The marches were published between 1901 and 1930 and all share the same basic structure of main march - lyrical trio - march reprise - trio pomposified. - March No.1 in D major (1901) (6:13) - The First March really needs no introduction, being performed endlessly in all kinds of adverts, films, proms, graduations both in England and Yankeeland… Its status is almost paralleled with the British National Anthem. The main march is of course very optimistic and pompous as the title suggests. The lyrical middle section then gives the immortal hymn that remains one of Elgar's greatest lyrical inspirations. This is followed by the march reprise which gives way to the lyrical melody once again in a more glorified form [here I can hear the gents... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful

Advantages: It is simply one of the finest pieces of music ever written
Disadvantages: How dare you ask of any disadvantges!?!

...of the work in existence, neither are there any sketches left, but there were numerous mentions of the work in letters and diaries, such as the note from Alice when the conductor Landon Ronald came to visit on Elgar's sixty-second birthday on June 2, that Elgar played large chunks of the concerto on piano and three days later the cellist Felix Salmond came to try the work out on his cello and was apparently "delighted and enthusiastic." Elgar was enthusiatic as well and often was seen waking up at early morning, adding passages and orchestrating the work, and by late July he told Sidney Colvin he had "nearly completed a Concerto for Violoncello: a real large work and I think good and alive." He dedicated the concerto for Colvin and his wife Frances, and after a couple of additions that Salmond came out to try at Brinkwells, the score was ready by... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful