Elgar: Elegy for strings, Op. 58

This exclusive new recording turns the spotlight on a forgotten but fascinating corner of British music and theatre history. The Fringes of the Fleet, a patriotic song-cycle with words by Kipling, was the morale-raising headline act in variety theatres throughout the country, as World War I reached its climax in 1917. This recording is a significant document in understanding a forgotten era of British music.

Paul Goodwin brings fresh insight and a spirit of renewal to this lyrical program of Elgar rarities, in which the composer recaptures happy memories of his youth.

Barbirolli made his first recording of the First Symphony for Pye in December 1956. He had recorded the Second for HMV in 1954. The First was recorded in one day (with the Introduction and Allegro) in the Free Trade Hall and one senses in this very fine interpretation the sweep and immediacy of a live performance – there is no suggestion here of stitched-up tapes and inserted re-takes. JB’s Hallé was at its peak around this period and he made the recording with the centenary of Elgar’s birth the following June very much in the front of his mind. Michael Kennedy believes the performance of the Adagio is even more moving than in his 1963 Philharmonia version. He first conducted No.1 in 1933 with the Scottish Orchestra but did not return to it until the 1954-5 Hallé season in Manchester. It was also the last Elgar work he conducted, at Ely and King’s Lynn in July 1970. The symphony is part of Hallé history because Hans Richter, to whom it was dedicated, conducted the first performance at a Hallé concert in Manchester on 3 December 1908 and JB made it the climax of the orchestra’s centenary concert on 30 January 1958 when Colin Mason wrote that “the performance was not four movements but a single symphonic poem, haunted all through by the tempo and mood of the opening march theme. It may be doubted whether Richter himself did better for the work than this.” We can hear how right he was from this disc.

Sir Edward Elgar once described the sensation of flying in an aeroplane to Frederick Delius: “There is a delightful feeling of elation in sailing through gold and silver clouds. It is, Delius, rather like your music – a little intangible sometimes, but always very beautiful.”