MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2023
Approaching 60,000 reviews
and more.. and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here Acte Prealable Polish CDs
 

Presto Music CD retailer
 
Founder: Len Mullenger                                    Editor in Chief:John Quinn             


CD REVIEW

Some items
to consider

new MWI
Current reviews

old MWI
pre-2023 reviews

paid for
advertisements

Acte Prealable Polish recordings

Forgotten Recordings
Forgotten Recordings
All Forgotten Records Reviews

TROUBADISC
Troubadisc Weinberg- TROCD01450

All Troubadisc reviews


FOGHORN Classics

Alexandra-Quartet
Brahms String Quartets

All Foghorn Reviews


All HDTT reviews


Songs to Harp from
the Old and New World


all Nimbus reviews



all tudor reviews


Follow us on Twitter


Editorial Board
MusicWeb International
Founding Editor
   
Rob Barnett
Editor in Chief
John Quinn
Contributing Editor
Ralph Moore
Webmaster
   David Barker
Postmaster
Jonathan Woolf
MusicWeb Founder
   Len Mullenger

alternatively
CD: Crotchet AmazonUK AmazonUS

 

Sir Edward ELGAR (1857-1934)
Wand of Youth Suite No. 1 [21:06]
Wand of Youth Suite No. 2 [18:06]
Nursery Suite [25:41]
Dream Children, Op. 43* [7:51]
Ulster Orchestra/Bryden Thomson
Bournemouth Sinfonietta/Norman Del Mar*
rec. Ulster Hall, 27 June 1982; *Guildhall, Southampton, July 1976
CHANDOS CHAN10422X [73:17]
Experience Classicsonline

Elgar’s Wand of Youth suites were once (August or September 1968, I think) deemed important enough for the Boult recording to feature on the front cover of The Gramophone magazine.  I doubt that anyone would now accord them such high status, but they have always been favourites of mine since I obtained them coincidentally along with Anthony Pini’s account of the Cello Concerto on Decca Ace of Clubs.  As I recall, those were pretty crumbly recordings, but the quality of the music shone through.  That van Beinum recording is now available on CD (Beulah 2PD15 – also from iTunes, but not as one of their higher-bit-rate ‘plus’ recordings), sounding, by all accounts, much better than on ACL.
 
The Boult version to which I have referred was also once available on CD (CDM7 69207 2); though its place in the EMI stable has now been taken by Vernon Handley’s account (CFP 5 75979 2) at about the same price as this Chandos reissue, I shall not be abandoning it any time soon.  I shall, however, play this Chandos version, too, especially as the couplings are more apt and more enticing than those on the Boult CD.  The Nursery Suite and Dream Children – the latter piece added to this reissue to make it even better value – are smaller beer than Wand of Youth, but well worth hearing.
 
Bryden Thomson had something of a reputation for slowish tempi, savouring the music a little too much as he went along.  I find this less irksome in his performances of Bax, for example, than some reviewers, and it is not too much in evidence here.  He is often faster than Boult; only rarely is he slower. 
 
The Slumber Scene (track 6) is one exception: here, at 4:27, he is exactly a whole minute slower than Boult’s 3:27.  EM, who has already reviewed this recording – see review – also noted that Thomson takes whole minute longer over this movement than Handley – at least, I think he meant to say that Thomson was slower, not shorter.
 
Not recalling that I had thought this movement at all slow in my first run-through, I let several days elapse before listening carefully to the Boult version, fully prepared to think his timing too rushed.  It was no such thing – he captures the spirit of the piece perfectly.  Having put on the Boult recording in order to check the one track, I just couldn’t resist playing the whole thing.  This is a wonderful recording and EMI should urgently consider reissuing it, perhaps more appropriately coupled – the music and performance are even worthy to sit alongside the Enigma Variations.  I note that JQ welcomed its most recent appearance on EMI British Classics with enthusiasm (5 75295 2 – see review).
 
Then I played the Thomson again and derived equal pleasure from it.  At first I thought the recording not quite as full as the Boult – EMI’s ADD sound is very good for its age – but that is an aural delusion resulting from the fact that the EMI transfer is at a slightly higher rate: turn up the Chandos a notch and the illusion disappears.  Both performances and recordings deliver plenty of power where it is need.
 
Did Thomson’s Slumber Scene sound too slumberous?  Only marginally – heard on its own, without comparison, it’s perfectly fine.  I’ve said so often that tempo indications don’t always tell the full story that it’s time that I got it into my own noddle.  I do think, however, that the March which begins the second suite (tr.8) is a touch slow at 4:58 against Boult’s 4:26.
 
The Nursery Suite and Dream Children also receive fine performances – the latter from Norman del Mar, always idiomatic in English music – well recorded.  At its new price, this recording is very welcome.  In the absence of the Boult (temporary, I hope) this will do very nicely.
 
These Thomson performances are available to download from classicsonline (mp3 – the original full-price coupling, without Dream Children) and from Chandos’s own theclassicalshop (mp3 and lossless versions).  The lossless version is excellent but it’s actually a penny dearer than the CD.  The iTunes version, though in the ‘plus’ format, also offers the Chandos original and thus omits the Dream Children performance; at £7.99 it’s as expensive as the lossless version from theclassicalshop.
 
Chandos will sell you the CD for the iTunes price – some dealers even offer it for less – and you get the informative booklet with Malcolm Walker’s informative notes, which also comes as part of the deal if you download from Chandos.  I particularly liked the cover of the reissued CD, from The Tatler – its knowing innocence is in perfect accord with the spirit of the music.  You have to look inside the booklet, p.15, to discover that the little girl is saying to her friend “An’ you KNOW what men are.”
 
If you enjoy these pieces, you will probably react favourably to Elgar’s other piece of childhood-related music, The Starlight Express, Op.78 - not to be confused with the West End musical of that name; there’s a wonderful budget-price Vernon Handley version on Classics For Pleasure 5859072.
 
Brian Wilson

see also review by Em Marshall

 

 


Advertising on
Musicweb


Donate and keep us afloat

 

New Releases

Naxos Classical
All Naxos reviews

Hyperion recordings
All Hyperion reviews

Foghorn recordings
All Foghorn reviews

Troubadisc recordings
All Troubadisc reviews



all Bridge reviews


all cpo reviews

Divine Art recordings
Click to see New Releases
Get 10% off using code musicweb10
All Divine Art reviews


All Eloquence reviews

Lyrita recordings
All Lyrita Reviews

 

Wyastone New Releases
Obtain 10% discount

Subscribe to our free weekly review listing

 

 


EXPLORE MUSICWEB INTERNATIONAL

Making a Donation to MusicWeb

Writing CD reviews for MWI

About MWI
Who we are, where we have come from and how we do it.

Site Map

How to find a review

How to find articles on MusicWeb
Listed in date order

Review Indexes
   By Label
      Select a label and all reviews are listed in Catalogue order
   By Masterwork
            Links from composer names (eg Sibelius) are to resource pages with links to the review indexes for the individual works as well as other resources.

Themed Review pages

Jazz reviews

 

Discographies
   Composer
      Composer surveys
   National
      Unique to MusicWeb -
a comprehensive listing of all LP and CD recordings of given works
.
Prepared by Michael Herman

The Collector’s Guide to Gramophone Company Record Labels 1898 - 1925
Howard Friedman

Book Reviews

Complete Books
We have a number of out of print complete books on-line

Interviews
With Composers, Conductors, Singers, Instumentalists and others
Includes those on the Seen and Heard site

Nostalgia

Nostalgia CD reviews

Records Of The Year
Each reviewer is given the opportunity to select the best of the releases

Monthly Best Buys
Recordings of the Month and Bargains of the Month

Comment
Arthur Butterworth Writes

An occasional column

Phil Scowcroft's Garlands
British Light Music articles

Classical blogs
A listing of Classical Music Blogs external to MusicWeb International

Reviewers Logs
What they have been listening to for pleasure

Announcements

 

Community
Bulletin Board

Give your opinions or seek answers

Reviewers
Past and present

Helpers invited!

Resources
How Did I Miss That?

Currently suspended but there are a lot there with sound clips


Composer Resources

British Composers

British Light Music Composers

Other composers

Film Music (Archive)
Film Music on the Web (Closed in December 2006)

Programme Notes
For concert organizers

External sites
British Music Society
The BBC Proms
Orchestra Sites
Recording Companies & Retailers
Online Music
Agents & Marketing
Publishers
Other links
Newsgroups
Web News sites etc

PotPourri
A pot-pourri of articles

MW Listening Room
MW Office

Advice to Windows Vista users  
Questionnaire    
Site History  
What they say about us
What we say about us!
Where to get help on the Internet
CD orders By Special Request
Graphics archive
Currency Converter
Dictionary
Magazines
Newsfeed  
Web Ring
Translation Service

Rules for potential reviewers :-)
Do Not Go Here!
April Fools




Return to Review Index

Untitled Document


Reviews from previous months
Join the mailing list and receive a hyperlinked weekly update on the discs reviewed. details
We welcome feedback on our reviews. Please use the Bulletin Board
Please paste in the first line of your comments the URL of the review to which you refer.