Elgar: Symphony No. 2

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[Petrenko’s love for Elgar] can be felt throughout this performance too: in the sumptuous but textured orchestral sound (beautifully recorded), in the attentive phrasing and in the power of the... — BBC Music Magazine, June 2017, 3 out of 5 stars More…

Release Date: 24th Feb 2017
Catalogue No: ONYX4165
Label: Onyx
Length: 69 minutes

Record Review

8th April 2017

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Elgar: Symphony No. 2 in E flat major, Op. 63

Work length59:05

Album only

Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra
Vasily Petrenko

Symphony No. 2 in E-Flat, Op. 63: I. Allegro vivace e nobilmente

Track length19:14

Album only

Symphony No. 2 in E-Flat, Op. 63: II. Larghetto

Track length15:04

Album only

Symphony No. 2 in E-Flat, Op. 63: III. Rondo. Presto

Track length7:57

$1.50

$2.10

$2.60

Symphony No. 2 in E-Flat, Op. 63: IV. Moderato e maestoso

Track length16:50

Album only

Elgar: Carissima

Work length3:23

$1.00

$1.40

$1.75

Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra
Vasily Petrenko

Elgar: Mina

Work length3:52

$1.00

$1.40

$1.75

Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra
Vasily Petrenko

Elgar: Chanson de Matin, Op. 15 No. 2

Work length3:19

$1.00

$1.40

$1.75

Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra
Vasily Petrenko

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"What’s the matter with them Billy? They sit there like a lot of stuffed pigs!" Elgar commented to his friend W.H Reid, the leader of the Queen’s Hall Orchestra after the chilly reception given to the 2nd Symphony at its premiere in 1911. More emotionally complex and ambiguous than the first symphony, the 2nd seems to hint at the apocalyptic events that would be unleashed just three years on. "Be like a woman dropping a flower on a man’s grave" wrote the composer of the ‘Spirit of Delight' theme in the coda of the second movement.

This eagerly awaited Elgar 2 from Petrenko and the RLPO will further delight those fans who bought their recording of the 1st Symphony, released on Onyx to critical acclaim last year.

Reviews

June 2017

[Petrenko’s love for Elgar] can be felt throughout this performance too: in the sumptuous but textured orchestral sound (beautifully recorded), in the attentive phrasing and in the power of the climaxes

May 2017

The RLPO, on great form, provide a sumptuous array of textures with an ensemble that is crisp and incisive. It is so good to hear every note of the athletic brass counterpoint in the horns and trumpets and the lithe filigree of Elgar’s careful doublings between wind and strings

19th February 2017

Petrenko’s tempos in the long opening movement are admirably flexible, but it’s in the last two that interpretation and playing seem to me finest; the finale achieves a noble grandeur and melancholy.

12th March 2017

Petrenko displayed a perceptive understanding for Elgar in his disc with the RLPO of Symphony No 1. Here again, flexibility of tempi, contrasts between lyricism and angst, are brought out with expansive yet controlled playing: the horns and, in the melancholy Larghetto, the woodwind especially. Strings are firm and refined throughout.

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