Edward ELGAR (1857-1934)
Serenade for Strings in E minor Op.20 (1892) [12:27]
La Capricieuse Op.17 (1891) [3:47]
Piano Quintet in A minor Op.84 (1918-19) [37:07]
Elegy Op.58 (1909) [4:18]
The Spanish Lady - Suite ed. Percy Young (1934/1956) [11:02]
Xue Wei (violin), Pamela Nicholson (piano) (La Capriceuse)
The Schubert Ensemble (Quintet)
Academy of St. Martin in the Fields/Sir Neville Marriner (Serenade)
Royal Ballet Sinfonia/Gavin Sutherland (Elegy & Spanish Lady)
rec. Abbey Road, 1989 (Serenade), Henry Wood Hall, 1989 (La Capricieuse), Champs Hill, 2001 (Quintet), Sony Music Studios, 2001 (Elegy and Spanish Lady)
ALTO ALC1321 [70:00]
This disc is a straight reissue of the programme issued on
ASV around 2002, which in turn was a bringing together of various recordings
from various times. The quality of the individual performances remains high,
but I do quite struggle to see the intended audience for such a mixed bag
of Elgar from early to late, and novelty miniature to a profound large-scale
masterpiece.
Taken individually, each performance is good at least and often more than
that. Together with the adjacent Opus 19 Froissart, the Op.20 Serenade for
Strings is the first extended work, in which glimpses of the mature great
composer unmistakably appear. It shows Elgar's remarkable ability to
write in a style that is both light, but also emotionally moving and sincere.
The performance here from Neville Marriner and his Academy of St. Martin in
the Fields is as assured and in tune with the idiom as one would expect of
such experienced musicians. Marriner picks ideally fluent tempi, allowing
the music to breathe and flow, giving it emotional weight where required,
without committing the cardinal sin of Elgar interpretation of anticipating
and thereby overblowing climaxes. Instead he finds exactly the right degree
of held and poised intensity. Timings are very close to the fine Decca/Argo
recording Marriner made some years earlier, but it could be argued that he
finds a degree of extra tender fragility in the central Larghetto, even if
the recording is not quite as rich as the classic Decca analogue.
Xue-Wei has all the technical resources for La Capricieuse, which just 3 opus
numbers earlier than the Serenade, comes firmly from the period of Elgar trying
to supply music for the salon. I am not completely convinced that Xue-Wei
has the style quite right. For all the skill in the flying spiccato, his phrasing
is rather repetitious and heavy-handed - if anything the music is not capricious
enough.
The journey Elgar made in the quarter century or so from La Capricieuse is
embodied in the late great Piano Quintet, which lies at the centre of this
programme. This receives an excellent, often pensive and thoughtful performance
from the Schubert Ensemble. That this is a 'big' work, straining
at the nominal limitations of its chamber form, has recently been evidenced
by the orchestral transcription by Donald Fraser. Interesting though that
might be - I have not heard the disc - for me the greatness of the quintet
lies in the way that Elgar, the master-orchestrator, achieves the sense of
scale he does with 'just' five instruments. As with any great
piece there are multiple valid approaches. I very much like the Maggini Quartet
on Naxos with Peter Donohoe, who produce a performance of high drama, great
skill and considerable power. The first version I knew and still a favourite
is the version on EMI/Warner from the Allegri Quartet with John Ogden. But
the Schubert Ensemble are their equals musically and technically and they
choose to emphasise the chamber-music qualities of the work. Not that climaxes
are underplayed or underpowered, but the heart of the piece and performance
lies in the central Adagio, which gets a superbly dignified and gently poised
interpretation. Phrases are perfectly sustained and directed - alongside the
adjacently numbered Cello Concerto hard not to hear this as some kind of valedictory
farewell. The recording here is good at integrating all the instruments together
into pleasingly natural acoustics, which matches the style of the interpretation.
The Op.58 Elegy comes from the high-noon of Elgar's career sitting
between the two symphonies and the violin concerto. Given the concentrated
power and intensity of this short four-minute work, it is curious that it
remains the least known of Elgar's works for string orchestra. The
performance by Gavin Sutherland and the Royal Ballet Sinfonia is perfectly
good, but does not manage to plumb the emotional depths of Barbirolli or Del
Mar (who takes nearly a three-quarters of a minute longer). The latter also
benefits from the larger string section, deployed by the LPO. Interestingly
Boult is far swifter at around 3:30 - call me indulgent, but I do find the
weightier approach more probing and rewarding. Quite how the creative fires
had dimmed is shown in the slight suite for strings created by Percy Young
from Elgar's abortive opera The Spanish Lady. Anthony Payne's
reconstruction of the 3rd Symphony shows that Elgar's powers were still
considerable, but the opera sketches operate at a lower level of inspiration.
Young's five movement suite is attractive in an Edward German or Parry
Baroque suite kind of way, but lacks any of the emotional heft that all the
other Elgar string works contain. Programming-wise, putting this slight but
attractive work last is something of an anti-climax after the Serenade, Quintet
and even Elegy. It remains a relative rarity in the Elgar recorded catalogue
and is again perfectly well played here, without any aspect of the performance
leading the listener to believe it is a greater piece than previously supposed.
Again, decently recorded.
The variously dated and sourced recordings are well engineered, the liner
notes are brief but adequate and the price-point is attractive. So a fine
performance of an undoubted Elgar masterpiece, the Piano Quintet, is the main
attraction here, but I would encourage curious listeners to hear that work
as part of the triptych of late chamber works rather than in isolation as
here. Given the varied nature of the content, a disc that is likely to be
dipped into rather than enjoyed in a single sitting.
Nick Barnard
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