As I listened to the opening bars of this magnificent performance of Elgar’s ‘In the South’, I was continually asking myself why did Decca leave this true Elgarian testament unissued for over five decades. There is a certain ebullient warmth about Boyd Neel’s bold and romantic performance that eluded those before and after him, excepting perhaps those historic records the composer himself made. I make no bones about this, Alassio is my favorite Elgarian work, and nothing written from that majestic pen comes so close to the Mediterranean warmth and joie de vivre that positively implodes the score.

Dutton have conveniently split the work into four distinct sections, the one at fig. 34 is slightly difficult to conceive but the music does retain the natural edge. Decca’s fabled FFRR engineering was at the forefront and one can imagine the hit this recording would have made with its life-breathing violin playing and the various woodwind instrument solos permeating the vast Italian canvas. Boyd Neel is close to Sir Yehudi Menuhin’s excellent Tring account, but that suffers from some over gorging in the slower pieces.

Here the various passages of the work are fused together with a remarkable sense of elan and most of all, a humanity that eludes most conductors. There is no need to make any excuses for the sound, as I said earlier this is sensational Decca at its brilliant best. If Sir Malcolm Sargent’s recording of the ‘Enigma Variations’ is similarly full rounded and brilliant, one must take issue with him for some interpretative points that are slightly controversial. First of all, the performance sounds like a rushed job from the outset with the beautiful Theme lacking in mystery at the swift tempo.

However there are definitely advantages to be had especially in the genial ‘Ysobel’ and ‘Troyte’, both models of Elgarian picture painting. ‘Nimrod’ is a fleeting glimpse from a motor bus; here one almost weeps for the pompous majesty that is to be found in Elgar’s unsurpassable account. Still, all in all, Sargent’s performance is serviceable, but with such a plethora of versions available, he is definitely hard pressed to match the best. The recording is a souvenir of the fantastic National Symphony Orchestra at their brilliant best, one must not forget that there were artists of the like of Dennis Brain in its ranks.

The enticing filler to the original 78rpm set of ‘Enigma’ was the swaggering Pomp and Circumstance March No. 5, this is an ideal and fascinating addendum to the 1953 Decca recordings of Nos. 1 & 4 now available on Beulah (1PD13). Malcolm Walker tells us that the original dates of the actual sessions do not survive, thus continually enhancing the enticing nature of this release. Boyd Neel’s ‘Chansons’ are earlier September 1945 recordings, and in them one can feel the authentic touch that the String Orchestra was able to give to British music. In fact, the soft and silky sweet nature of this salon music has rarely sounded better.

Dutton have chosen to end the compilation with an early, rare pressing of the young Sir Charles Groves in two songs from ‘The Starlight Express’. Henry Cummings clearly enunciated and deeply felt renderings are given sympathetic accompaniments by this much missed character who was to imprint such a firm name on Elgar’s music in the years to come. A treasure trove of a disc, with it’s authentic front cover featuring one of those long lost Decca 78’s and as usual, superbly remastered by Michael Dutton. I still hear those magnificent bars of ‘In the South’ ringing in my ears!

Reviewer

Gerald Fenech

Performance:

Sound:

Gerald Fenech

Performance:

Sound: