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Site review by Castor November 6, 2007
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Performance: Sonics (MC): |
The only direct competition on SACD with Richard Hickox’s new recording of the Elgar/Payne Symphony No.3 is the outstanding Naxos version by Paul Daniel and the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra that I reviewed in May /showreviews/1620#4571, and there I suggested that it would be difficult to better or even match that recording. The new Chandos version does have two major advantages over the Naxos,: first an outstandingly spacious DSD recording and secondly the addition of two more Elgar/Payne pieces, one of which is a premiere recording.
Hickox’s fiery account of the first movement, dominated by brass and percussion, makes great contrast between the fast and slow sections. There is an impressive power and forward thrust to his treatment of the opening theme while the noble second subject is more reflective and lovingly caressed. The Scherzo is paced with a pleasing lightness while the transparency of the recording allows appreciation of the fine wind and string playing of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales. Hickox renders the cry of despair that is the slow movement with even more poignancy than Daniel, emphasising the overwhelming anguish in the music.
Both performances of the finale are equally convincing, the main difference here and throughout this disc being that the Chandos balance and the acoustic of the Brangwyn Hall, Swansea, favour the brass and wind while the Naxos has a closer perspective that is more flattering to the Bournemouth strings. My only regret is that, on the Chandos, violins are not separated to the left and right of the conductor. This I find strange, as on his recordings of Symphonies 1 & 2 Hickox adopted that antiphonal arrangement with predictably beneficial results.
‘So Many True Princesses’, composed in the final two years of Elgar’s life, is a beautiful setting of a poem by John Masefield written to accompany the unveiling of a monument to the Queen Mother, Queen Alexandria, who had died in 1925. It was originally written for chorus and military band, but Payne’s orchestration is so ‘echt’ Elgarian that one doesn’t for a moment regret the loss of the original version whose band parts are now believed to be lost. The Adrian Partington Singers (Adrian Partington is the Director of the BBC National Chorus of Wales) give a fine rendition of this short, but moving piece.
Elgar’s five completed Pomp and Circumstance Marches span a period of nearly thirty years, the last No.5 appearing in 1930. In 2005 the Elgar Will Trust asked Anthony Payne to examine sketches for a sixth march with a view to a creating a performing version. This task Payne duly undertook, and the resulting work was first performed at a BBC Prom on 2nd of August 2006 by the BBC Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Sir Andrew Davis (to whom it is dedicated ‘with admiration and gratitude’). It is a splendid piece of quintessential Elgar and is given a performance here that is full of swagger in the outer sections and dignity in the central trio. In the last few bars Payne concludes with a witty allusion to the end of the best known of the Pomp and Circumstance Marches.
All lovers of Elgar will want this superbly recorded disc for all three works even if, like me, they already have the equally fine Naxos release of the symphony (whose continued availability on SACD may sadly be limited).
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Copyright © 2007 Graham Williams and SA-CD.net
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