Edward William Elgar

“…40 years on the comparisons with Boult's other recordings of the Elgar symphonies demonstrate very clearly how fine they are, arguably the finest versions he ever recorded.” Gramophone Magazine, September 2007

“In 1968, when Sir Adrian Boult recorded the two Elgar Symphonies for Lyrita, he wrote an open letter to Gramophone, couched diplomatically but reflecting his fury that at the sessions his recording manager had forced him on technical grounds to have all the violins on the left instead of his usual habit of dividing them between the two sections. That said, and 40 years on, the comparisons with Boult's other recordings of the Elgar symphonies demonstrate very clearly how fine they are, arguably the finest versions he ever recorded.
Compared with the EMI versions recorded less than five years later, they are tauter, the ensemble noticeably crisper. The recording is brighter and clearer in this transfer. The difference is particularly marked in No 2 which, as Elgar said, was a work which Boult was the first conductor to make a success after the disappointing reception given at its premiere. The comparison is closer with the mono recording of No 2, which Boult recorded with the BBC SO in 1945, a superb performance but which is still marginally outshone by the Lyrita version.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“It was impossible for Casals to play anything as if it weren't great music, and even the shortest items on this disc have a depth and warmth which easily overcome the gritty sound of the early 1920s.” BBC Music Magazine, August 2007 *****

“Davis is a true magician, a man devoted to his art who has found in this English series a perfect environment in which to flourish. Elgar’s music has found another worthy messenger.” CD Classics

“Most cherishable of all is a Sea Pictures with Janet Baker and Vernon Handley, a live recording from 1984 that was rescued from the Capital Radio archives; it's a wonderful alternative to the much-loved LSO/Barbirolli version. Baker's voice is still gloriously rich, and the live occasion inspires a performance of great urgency and intensity. A wonderfully rich collection that all Elgarians should try to hear.” Gramophone Magazine, July 2007

“... the other performance conducted by Handley is a gem ... a live performance of Janet Baker singing Sea Pictures .... Baker is on radiant form passionately engaged and in superb voice too…” International Record Review, June 2007

“....special interest attaches to a previously unreleased recording of the Sea Pictures by Janet Baker …” The Observer, April 2007

“What a brilliant idea of the LPO to gather together Elgar recordings from many different sources, some rare and unexpected. They range from the composer's recordings with the newly founded LPO to Sir Charles Mackerras and Vernon Handley in the 1980s. Most Elgarians will know the great majority, but it is many years since the Campoli recording of the Violin Concerto, fresh and urgent, was freely available.
The nobility in 'Sabbath Morning at Sea' is heart-stopping, from full-throated richness down to a hushed pianissimo on 'brooded soft on waters deep', and the attack in 'The Swimmer' is thrilling. Handley beautifully conjures up the surge of the sea in the brilliant orchestration.
Sir Adrian Boult is the principal contributor to the set in recordings from a number of labels.
The excellent transfer gives wonderful body to the mono recording of the Violin Concerto while Falstaff, Boult's 1956 Nixa recording, has a restricted frequency range but still reveals plenty of detail, the close chilling. It is good, too, to have Paul Tortelier's warm and steadily paced reading of the Cello Concerto, and Handley's noble CfP version of the Second Symphony is valuable for the use of organ to reinforce the bass at a key point in the finale. Mackerras's Imperial March, made for Reader's Digest, is a rarity, and his other contribution, a 1985 Enigma Variations (EMI Eminence), brings an unusually slow 'Nimrod'.
It is good to have Elgar's own beautiful account of the Serenade for Strings, spacious in the slow movement, and his Froissart. From the 1930s, too, an excellent Coronation March by Sir Landon Ronald sounds wonderfully rich for the period. Solti's Decca recordings have tingling clarity and brilliance, warmth and panache.
A wonderfully rich collection that all Elgarians should try to hear. Praise must go to the transfer engineers.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010