Elgar: Enigma Variations, Op. 36

Two beloved Romantic orchestral works in stellar performances, return to the catalogue in beautiful transfers. Pierre Monteux (1875-1964) often bemoaned the fact that he was associated with the French and Russian repertoires, to the exclusion of music from outside of those traditions. He could hardly help it; after all, it was Monteux who conducted the first and famously chaotic performance of Stravinsky’s Le Sacre du printemps in 1913. Nevertheless, he recorded all of Beethoven’s symphonies (some of them more than once) and all of Brahms’s, with the exception of the Fourth. He made only one recording of Elgar’s Enigma Variations, and one of the Dvořák Seventh. These came late in his career – 1958 and 1959, respectively – and were the only recordings he made of works by their respective composers. Elgar’s work frequently appeared in the conductor’s concert programs during this ‘Indian summer’. In fact, his last American concerts, in December 1963 with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, featured the Enigma Variations, along with works by Vaughan Williams, Beethoven and Sibelius. In his recording of Dvořák’s Seventh, Monteux is clearly responsive to the symphony’s connections with Brahms – a composer for whom he had special affection.

Produced by EMI Classics in partnership with the prestigious National Gallery in London, The National Gallery Collection is a budget-price catalogue series bringing together the very best in fine art and classical music.

The collection features a selection of classical masterworks in celebrated recordings from the EMI Classics catalogue, brought together with great artworks from The National Gallery’s permanent collection.

Roger Norrington and the Radio-Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart de SWR present a programme of works by the most English of composers, Edward Elgar. Included is “In the South”, a somewhat neglected masterwork which has rarely been recorded.

Sir Adrian Boult (1889–1983), one of the great British conductors of the 20th century, who studied under the legendary Arthur Nikisch in Berlin which make his Brahms interpretations so special.

This fiery 1976 Prom stereo broadcast of Brahms 1 is the only authorised live account available. He recorded the symphony three times in the studio.

The live stereo broadcast of Elgar’s Enigma Variations was sourced from the Royal Albert Hall Centenary Concert on 29 March 1971 and features the alternative organ part played by George Thalben-Ball, one of the most celebrated organists of his time.

The CD is completed by an extract of an interview Boult gave on the occasion of his 85th birthday where he talks about the art of interpretation.

SAMPLE TRACK Brahms Symphony No.1 – 1st movement

This collection of music from 20th-century ballets features such master conductors of British repertoire as Boult, Previn, Handley and Mackerras – who also, drawing on the works of Sir Arthur Sullivan, wrote Pineapple Poll for John Cranko. Dame Ninette de Valois choreographed the chessboard machinations of Bliss’s Checkmate, here complemented by Elgar’s much-loved Enigma Variations, Walton’s witty Façade, elemental dances from Holst’s opera The Perfect Fool, and colourful pieces by Berners, Lambert and Gordon.

This BARBIROLLI ENGLISH MUSIC ALBUM contains something of a scoop in that the recording of Elgar’s Enigma Variations was made on 12 May 1947, the first time Barbirolli recorded the work. For some undiscoverable reason, the discs were never issued and the work was re-recorded on 23 October of the same year (also issued on CD by the Barbirolli Society on SJB1017). His affection for this inexhaustible masterpiece shone through every performance of it he gave as he gloried in the piquancy of the illustration of Elgar’s “friends pictured within” — and he liked to remind Michael Kennedy that the Variations and JB were born in the same year, 1899. Elgar’s genius was to weld his series of vignettes into a large-scale composite portrait — of himself. This gift for writing a miniature which was a microcosm of a big work is illustrated also in the second (the exquisite Lullaby) of the Three Bavarian Dances, a previously unpublished take, recorded on 30 May 1947.