01. In the South. Concert overture, op.50 'Alassio'* []02. - 05. Symphony No. 1 in A-flat major, op.55^ []
06. - 09. Symphony No. 2 in E-flat major, op.63" []
10. - 12. Serenade for Strings in E minor, op.20# []
Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra conducted by Constantin Silvestri* and Norman Del Mar#
Philharmonia Orchestra^ and Halle Orchestra" conducted by John Barbirolli
EMI 9689242 (recorded August 1962^, April 1964", June# and September* 1967; this CD release 2009)
(Digital download; flacs, cover and inlay scans but no booklet)
Recording venues: Winter Gardens Theatre, Bournemouth*, Kingsway Hall, London^
Recording engineer: Harold Davidson^ and Christopher Parker"; Producer: Victor Olof^"
Recording engineer and Producer: Brian Culverhouse*#
This superb Elgar collection is posted here primarily for the two smaller works with the Bournemouth Symphony. Constantin Sivestri's scintillating recording of In the South is widely recognised as one of the finest ever set down but is generally only available in a large boxed set. Norman Del Mar's equally fine recording of the Serenade for Strings is much less well-known and, as far as I know, this is its only currently available release. As with John Barbirolli, Malcolm Sargent and Charles Groves before him, Del Mar makes the work deeply poignant with a magisterially slow tempo for the Larghetto movement.
Del Mar's recording first appeared on an LP of 'English Music for Strings' which also included works by Delius, Vaughan Williams and Warlock. Unfortunately, EMI/Warner have not seen fit to issue those equally splendid performances on CD. For some strange reason, many digital downloads, and the CD issue, In the South is divided into four tracks. But this came to me with the more conventional single track (as it also appears in the Silvestri box) and all tracks listed in numerical order rather than divided into 2 discs (as per the inlay scan).
Of course, both of the Barbirolli recordings are widely available and both have their adherents and detractors. I wouldn't want to be without the First Symphony (possibly because it was the first recording of it that I owned back in the early 60s.
Download from MEGA.