Edward ELGAR (1857-1934)
Symphony No. 2 in E flat major Op.63 (1911) [56:01]
Staatskapelle Berlin/Daniel Barenboim
rec. Philharmonie Berlin, Germany, 28 October 2013
DECCA 4786677 [56:01]
Back in the 1970s Barenboim made a series of Elgar discs for CBS/Sony with the London Philharmonic Orchestra. At that time he was on the short list for principal conductor of that orchestra and was the preferred choice of several influential players in the orchestra although he ultimately lost out to Georg Solti. Aside from a justly famous version of the Violin Concerto with Pinchas Zuckerman and a live performance of the Cello Concerto with his then wife Jacqueline du Pré contemporary critics did not judge those recordings as seriously challenging top recommendations of the day. Returning to them from today's perspective they reveal a consistent and individual approach to Elgar that sits between the volatility of say a Solti and the mature vision of the later Boult recordings (Lyrita; EMI). Part of the fascination with this new Decca recording is how little Barenboim's overall interpretation has changed. For sure an occasional passage might be fast here or slower there but the conception is very similar. Some comparative timings are interesting:
| Sinopoli/DG | Barenboim/CBS | Barenboim/Decca | Boult/EMI | Solti/Decca | |
| 1. Allegro vivace | 20:41 | 18:50 | 18:28 | 17:34 | 15:32 |
| 2. Larghetto | 18:24 | 14:19 | 14:01 | 14:13 | 15:33 |
| 3. Rondo - Presto | 8:59 | 8:01 | 8:01 | 8:03 | 7:52 |
| 4. Moderato | 17:19 | 15:19 | 15:31 | 13:19 | 12:32 |
| TOTAL | 65:23 | 56:29 | 56:01 | 53:09 | 51:29 |
The fact that such a wide range of timings exists and that all of the
performances - as well as many others - are compelling and satisfying
is testimony to the quality and variety of the work. Michael Kennedy
in his book Portrait of Elgar makes a fascinating argument
for the idea that this work together with the Violin Concerto and The
Music Makers are the three key Elgar works. Of those three the
Symphony is the richest and most complex of all. Indeed, it was that
technical complexity and musical/emotional ambiguity that left early
audiences confused and ultimately disappointed. Compared to the undoubted
genius of the First Symphony this work fluctuates between doubt and
certainty, hope and despair, rage and regret. The difficulty for interpreters
- aside from the huge technical demands made on the players - is to
find a coherent path through this minefield of Elgar's turbulent
world. In the range of interpretations listed above Sinopoli and Solti
focus on one extreme and minimise the emotion at the opposite end of
the expressive spectrum. Boult in this his last recording brings a certain
held gravitas that does not ignore either extreme but rather views them
from a perspective of detached old age. Barenboim chooses to engage
with each and every emotion as they present - rather like enjoying a
gallery of Art with a wide range of styles viewed in a relatively brief
period.
There are many positives to be taken from this approach. Clearly Barenboim
has a great deal of affection for the score and he has conveyed this
love to the Berlin players for whom this symphony must be a rarity at
best. Indeed the quality and engagement of the playing is one of its
major pluses. Given the influence of Germanic composers on Elgar it
should come as little surprise that the rich Germanic sound produced
by the excellent Staatskapelle Berlin is very well suited indeed to
this work. I do think there is a consciously theatrical approach in
Elgar's scoring that pre-supposes antiphonal violins - the photograph
of the orchestra in the liner would suggest just such an arrangement
but curiously the recording points up this detail less than one might
expect or indeed hope. The Decca recording is full and rich - without
the classic Decca sound produced for Solti but still impressive. Occasional
orchestral details are missed - the harp part proves to be only occasionally
audible. There are points where this seems to be a conscious choice
by Barenboim. For instance the coruscating chromatic upward trumpet
scale in the first movement (rehearsal figures 40 - 41) is just part
of the texture in both his performances which rather negates Elgar's
careful fff marking - one full step louder than the rest of
the orchestration. Listen to either Mackerras or Menuhin both with the
RPO on Argo and Virgin Classics respectively for the way to make this
passage register with thrilling intensity.
Indeed this example flags up my underlying concern with this recording
and interpretation. It strikes me that Barenboim finds so much beauty
in the score that he shies away from the harsher passages. Likewise,
he can at times suffocate a passage by over-exaggerating a slower tempo.
A good instance is the opening of the work. Barenboim hits his stride
with an ideally bracing tempo full of swaggering confidence and sweeping
energy. The Berlin horns in particular make the most of Elgar's
Straussian writing. I also like the way Barenboim encourages the superb
strings to apply those little portamenti slides rarely marked in the
Elgar's scores but so stylistically right - there's a
lovely one at figure 10. My minor quibble there is that it seems rather
arbitrary when these are applied. The sense of being stifled by love
appears by figure 11 (2:45 track 1). The three bars preceding are marked
poco (my italics) sostenuto. Barenboim treats it as a major
rallentando. Yes the cellos do play dolce e delicato at 11
and the dynamics here are scrupulously observed but what has happened
to the a tempo crochet=92; the music's pulse has all
but died. Far too often here and in similar passages in the other movements
Barenboim lapses into a Falstaffian Dream-Interlude reverie. This has
two major impacts on the music; firstly it seriously undermines the
sense of the symphonic form and secondly when Barenboim does 'wake
up' the return to the earlier faster tempi feels rushed and unconvincing.
The closing bars of this movement are exciting although simply fast
with no true accelerando al fin. This comes after another passage
of near stasis (figure 63 - around 17:00) where Barenboim does not trust
Elgar's written out slower tempo; the melody is played by notes
twice their previous length. He slows the pulse yet further and we are
fatally becalmed and has to add a major but unmarked acceleration at
64.
One might think that the famous slow movement - Elgar's elegiac
tribute to the dead King George VII, his friend Rodewald and indeed
a sense of the end of Empire would work best in Barenboim's luxurious
treatment. Again, the quality of the playing means many passages of
exceptional beauty. Compare the masterly Boult here - I particularly
like his Nixa
recording from the 1950s - to hear how greater emotional depths are
quarried by holding back from excessive or overt emotional displays.
Elgar's scoring is quite superb here and the best compliment
any conductor can do is trust it. Likewise, the emotional ebb and flow
is there and does not need excessive reinforcing to work. The movement
has two great climatic build-ups. The first at 76 is followed by one
of Elgar's great melodies marked sostenuto [sustained]
- the next time, near the movement's close at 85 a version of
the same melody now is marked accel pushing on to the movement's
poignant close. Barenboim pushes on both times which is a shame. However,
his close to this movement is brilliantly achieved.
After that it is a disappointment that the feverish fury of the Rondo
is underplayed. For sure it is a tour de force of orchestral
virtuosity but it lacks the vehemence this music surely needs. Michael
Kennedy has written that Elgar stated it represented "the madness
that attends the excess or abuse of passion", and tied it to a
section of a Tennyson poem
related to a corpse's experience in his grave: "... the
hoofs of the horses beat, beat into my scalp and brain ...". I
cannot think of another passage in British music up until this time
that encapsulates such nightmarish images. I can imagine some will find
this tempered version more agreeable than other unleashed performances
- this is the movement for me where Solti's approach pays greatest
dividends aided by Decca's supreme analogue engineering although
Mackerras is again hugely impressive.
Elgar's First symphony explicitly uses a cyclic motif to tie
the whole work together. Here, there is a subtler sense of a narrative
that draws itself together in the closing movement. Elements of all
that has preceded, emotionally more than musically, are revisited before
the music draws to a close of dignified acceptance. Barenboim's
strengths and weaknesses are the same as they have been throughout;
passages of great brilliance or beauty but lacking a strong sense of
a thread drawing one inexorably forward. It might be inauthentic in
the sense that Elgar did not write it but I do like the 'optional'
organ part that is added - following a comment from Boult - in the closing
peroration. Handley's
excellent CFP recording debuted the idea and more recently he has been
copied by Slatkin
on RCA and Mackerras
- the latter with greatest sonic effect. Whatever its authenticity it
does crown the movement and allows the music's withdrawal to
its closing rapt contemplation to register. Much as Barenboim was successful
at the close of the second movement, the concentration and focus he
creates in these final few bars are most impressive - in part because
this is one final sunset from which he does not have to rouse.
Unsurprisingly, given it is produced by Andrew Keener, this is a fine
sounding recording - if anything could persuade the German players that
Elgar is not simply second-rate Brahms, this should be it.
Ultimately this is a strongly personal and sincerely expressive performance
of a major work. The lack of a coupling may deter some but it should
not. If this does not go to the top of my list of preferred versions
it is because those are such fine performances and ones that from my
perspective more truly touch the essence that is the complex world of
Elgar's music. It is that elusiveness and ultimate loss that
Elgar was referring to in the famous "rarely, rarely, comest thou,
spirit of delight" quotation that heads the score and in that sense
Barenboim is only partially successful.
Nick Barnard
Masterwork Index: Elgar
symphony 2
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