Archive for the “Listening to Elgar (Symphony No 1)” category
Prom 2 | Elgar’s Symphony No. 1
by Glenn on July 29, 2017
It won’t be available to listen to much longer, but the performance of Elgar’s First Symphony by the Staatskapelle Berlin with Daniel Barenboim at the Second BBC Prom is fabulous. My embarrassingly and unjustifiably large collection of recordings of Elgar’s (…)
Elgar’s Symphony No. 1 for Organ
by Glenn on November 4, 2016
Recently I listened to two versions of a piano transcription of Elgar’s First Symphony. The idea of a piano transcription is anachronistic, from a time before the recording age, which began in earnest in the early 20th century and has (…)
Elgar in Transcription
by Glenn on October 5, 2016
In the days before the gramophone, music was a be-there-for-it proposition. The experience of listening to music wasn’t immediate and portable as it is today—it was live, and only live, which is not to discount the value of representations of (…)
Daniel Barenboim | Elgar: Symphony No. 1
by Glenn on April 30, 2016
Until I saw this recording, it hadn’t occurred to me that Sir Edward Elgar’s Symphony No. 1 has been recorded almost exclusively by English orchestras. If the discography here is correct, recordings of this symphony beyond the United Kingdom have (…)
Elgar: Symphony No. 1 | Sinopoli/Philharmonia
by Glenn on February 26, 2016
Sir Edward Elgar on his Symphony No. 1: “There is no programme beyond a wide experience of human life with a great charity and a massive hope in the future.” Here is a terrific recording of Elgar’s Symphony No. 1 (…)
Elgar 1 by Vasily Petrenko and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra
by Glenn on July 19, 2015
I’ve given up the search for the definitive recording of Elgar’s Symphony No. 1 (or Anybody’s Symphony No. Whatever for that matter). Appreciating a particular musical recording is largely a matter of taste, although the more you can articulate what (…)
Solti’s Handling of Elgar’s First (Symphony Studies No. 1 of 118)
by Glenn on June 25, 2015
One of my long-term projects is to read through the late Michael Steinberg’s The Symphony and listen to the works he describes. I first encountered Steinberg’s writing
Elgar 1 |Bernard Haitink | Philharmonia Orchestra
by Glenn on August 25, 2014
My Elgar 1 listening obsession continues and here is a recording for the ages. I think I’ve only heard Mahler performances by Bernard Haitink. How great that he crossed the Channel to record English music with an English orchestra—in this (…)
New Elgar 1: Royal Stockholm Philharmonic
by Glenn on August 21, 2014
This sometimes happens to me, I get into an Elgar’s First rut and find myself turning to it again and again over a short period of time. Here is a new release that was recorded in May 2012 that I (…)
