This was Davis's
first recording of Falstaff.
With Enigma it belongs to the
now dwindling stream of original Lyrita
recordings issued for the first time
on compact disc. There's another later
version of Davis’s Falstaff on
Warner with the BBC Symphony
Orchestra. The recording under review
is full of inveigling and entrancingly
vivid detail painted in with a dramatist’s
sensibility. It should please all
Elgarians and not a few Shakespearians.
Its strengths are piled high and the
playing of the Philharmonia has a
lot to do with it. The brass section
are caught in burred golden amber
sound - magnificent! I am a strong
proponent of Barbirolli's classic
version; however, this Lyrita disc
now stands as my reference point.
After a golden Falstaff
whatever happened to Davis’s Enigma?
I don't want to say too much but despite
several hearings this remains faceless
and hurriedly despatched. It's pretty
quick too at 29:46 which is not intrinsically
a problem but this lacks grip and
emotional fibre. Davis certainly avoids
the glucose in Nimrod but the
whole thing moves without emotional
gravitas. The much later recording
of the stately quick-tempo Pomp
and Circumstance 5 is much better,
crashing with energy and hubris -
a pity the sessions did not pick up
the other four. It’s not the first
time we have heard this march either.
It was added along with the Dorabella
movement to the Lyrita Classics
disc on SRCD.336.
The original LP which
was SRCS 77 always seemed to me excess
to requirements. I couldn’t have been
listening to Falstaff all that
well. Going by the absence of Davis
from any other Lyrita releases I can
only guess that the sessions or the
collaboration did not go happily.
A pity really because this Falstaff
really is something special. Who
knows what he would have done for
Bax, Brian, Moeran or Finzi.
Rob Barnett
Full Track-list
Falstaff, Symphonic Study
Op.68 (1913) 33.19
1 I Falstaff and Prince Henry — an
apartment of the Prince's 2.58
2 II Eastcheap — Gadshill — The Boar's
Head. Revelry and sleep —
Dream Interlude: Jack Falstaff, now
Sir John, a boy,
and page to Thomas Mowbray, Duke of
Norfolk 15.07
3 III Falstaff's march — Return through
Gloucestershire —
Interlude: Shallow’s orchard — The
new King — The ride to London 6.30
4 IV King Henry V's progress to his
Coronation —
The repudiation of Falstaff, and his
death 8.44
Enigma, Variations on an original
Theme Op.36 (1899) 29.46
5 Theme Andante 1.27
6 I (C.A.E.) L'istesso tempo 1.41
7 II (H.D.S-P.) Allegro 0.45
8 III (R.B.T.) Allegretto 1.22
9 IV (W.M.B.) Allegro di molto 0.28
10 V (R.P.A.) Moderato 2.09
11 VI (Ysobel) Andantino 1.18
12 VII (Troyte) Presto 0.58
13 VIII (W.N.) Allegretto 1.40
14 IX (Nimrod) Adagio 3.20
15 X (Dorabella) Intermezzo - andante
2.36
16 XI (G.R.S.) Allegro di molto 0.56
17 XII (B.G.N.) Andante 2.49
18 XIII (***) Romanza - moderato 2.42
19 XIV (E.D.U.) Allegro 5.28
20 Pomp and Circumstance March
No. 5 in C Op. 39 (1930) 5.41
for details
New Philharmonia Orchestra/Andrew Davis
