Elgar: Violin Concerto & Enigma Variations

a passing of the musical baton from one generation to the next if ever there was one, and a very moving one at that. Elgar's reading is an aptly broad, reflective one, while Menuhin's playing... — BBC Music Magazine, January 2012 More…

Catalogue No: 5669792
Label: Warner Classics
Series: Great Recordings of the Century
Length: 76 minutes

Building a Library

July 2001

Historic Choice

Elgar: Violin Concerto in B minor, Op. 61

Work length49:47

Album only

Yehudi Menuhin (violin)
London Symphony Orchestra
Sir Edward Elgar
Recorded: 1932-07-15
Recording Venue: 14 & 15 July 1932 / No. 1 Studio, Abbey Road, London

I. Allegro

Track length17:25

Album only

II. Andante

Track length13:00

Album only

III. Allegro molto -

Track length10:13

Album only

Cadenza (accompagnata: Lento) - Allegro molto

Track length9:09

$1.30

$1.70

Elgar: Enigma Variations, Op. 36

Work length27:15

$19.50

$25.50

Royal Albert Hall Orchestra
Sir Edward Elgar
Recorded: 1926-08-30
Recording Venue: 28 April & 30 August 1926 / Queen's Hall, London

Theme (Andante)

Track length1:43

$1.30

$1.70

I. C.A.E. (the composer's wife) (L'istesso tempo)

Track length1:54

$1.30

$1.70

II. H.D.S.-P. ( Hew David Steuart-Powell) (Allegro)

Track length0:43

$1.30

$1.70

III. R.B.T. (Richard Baxter Townshend) (Allegretto)

Track length1:26

$1.30

$1.70

IV. W.M.B. (William Meath Baker) (Allegro di molto)

Track length0:30

$1.30

$1.70

V. R.P.A. (Richard Penrose Arnold) (Presto)

Track length1:53

$1.30

$1.70

VI. Ysobel (Isabel Fitton) (Andantino)

Track length1:21

$1.30

$1.70

VII. Troyte (Troyte Griffith) (Presto)

Track length0:53

$1.30

$1.70

VIII. W.N. (Winifred Norbury) (Allegretto)

Track length1:39

$1.30

$1.70

IX. Nimrod (A. J. Jaeger) (Moderato)

Track length2:52

$1.30

$1.70

X. Intermezzo: Dorabella (Dora Penny) (Allegretto)

Track length2:31

$1.30

$1.70

XI. G.R.S. (George Robertson Sinclair) (Allegro di molto)

Track length0:50

$1.30

$1.70

XII. B.G.N. (Basil G. Nevinson) (Andante)

Track length2:16

$1.30

$1.70

XIII. Romanza: * * * [Lady Mary Lygon] (Moderato)

Track length2:03

$1.30

$1.70

XIV. Finale: E.D.U. (the composer) (Allegro)

Track length4:41

$1.30

$1.70

Reviews
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Reviews

January 2012

a passing of the musical baton from one generation to the next if ever there was one, and a very moving one at that. Elgar's reading is an aptly broad, reflective one, while Menuhin's playing still astonishes for its technical ease and maturity of insight.

2010

Elgar's conducting for Menuhin in the Violin Concerto's opening orchestral tutti is magnificent, as is his solicitous, attentive accompaniment throughout the work. Menuhin's youthful, wonderfully intuitive musicianship in fact needed little 'instruction', and the success of the recording may be judged from the fact that there have been few periods in the years since it was first issued when it hasn't been available in some shape or form. Beatrice Harrison first studied the Cello Concerto for an abridged, pre-electric recording with Elgar conducting. So impressed was the composer then that he insisted that she should be the soloist whenever he conducted the work again. Their authoritative performance is deeply felt and highly expressive, but it has a quality of nobility and stoicism which comes as a refreshing change from some overindulgent modern performances.
Since the original matrices were destroyed, EMI's engineers had to return to the 1957 tape for this transfer; although the 1957 engineers did not quite capture all the body of the originals there's an impressive clarity in the transfer, now brightened a little more for CD. The 1970s transfer of the Harrison/Elgar Cello Concerto was impressively managed, and this reissue has given still more presence to the sound without any sense of falsification.

Elgar: Violin Concerto & Enigma Variations

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