01.- 04. (elaborated by Anthony Payne) Symphony No.3 [57'37]
05. (orch Anthony Payne) Pomp and Circumstance March No.6 [8'41]
Sapporo Symphony Orchestra conducted by Tadaaki Otaka
Signum SIGCD118 [recorded March 2007; CD issued 2008]
[digital-download; flacs. booklet, cover and inlay scans]
Recorded at Sapporo Concert Hall "Kitara", JapanRecording engineer: Mike Hatch; Producer: Alexander van Ingen
Here the Japanese conductor Tadaaki Otaka reinforces his position as a fine Elgar interpreter following his outstanding recording of the First Symphony made for BIS 12 years earlier - see below. He was awarded the Elgar Medal of the British Elgar Society in 2000, a CBE in 2010 and is a British citizen.
Otaka offers a spacious view of Anthony Payne's excellent realisation of Elgar's sketches for a Third Symphony. Otaka has been quoted as finding Elgar as "like Bruckner" and this is certainly the case here. But this doesn't make his tempi seem slow and overall this gives close competition to the Andrew Davis, Paul Daniel and Richard Hickox recorded performances but is a bit let down by the recorded sound from the Sapporo hall. Considering how infrequently the Sapporo Symphony must play Elgar, the playing is quite fine. As with the Hickox recording, the coupling is another Elgar rescue by Anthony Payne, but with much less satisfying results.
05. Outro announcement [3'05]
National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland conducted by Vernon Handley
RTE broadcast of the first performance of the work in Ireland given at a concert on 4 May 2001 at the National Concert Hall, Dublin.
[flac files - but from a radio broadcast.]
This recording of the broadcast was kindly provided by a Symphonyshare friend rybergadams and it is a revelation. For the first time I hear the real Elgar in the first two movements; although even Handley can't achieve this with the relatively weak thematic material of the Adagio third movement. But at least that doesn't drag as it sometimes can. Handley adopts perfect tempi throughout and doesn't emphasise the nobilmente in the finale.
Sadly, Vernon Handley was scheduled to record the work for EMI soon after this performance but the sessions were cancelled due to his ill health and were not rescheduled before his death in 2008. The Irish orchestra plays very well for Handley and the broadcast sound is good enough but it is a great shame that we are denied a commercial recording of Handley conducting a world-class orchestra in top-quality sound.
05. Introduction and Allegro, op.47 [14'12]
BBC National Orchestra of Wales conducted by Tadaaki Otaka
BIS BISCD727 [recorded May 1995; CD issued 1995]
[digital-download; flacs, booklet, cover and inlay scans]
Recording venue: Brangwyn Hall, Swansea
Recording engineer: Ingo Pettry; Producer: Robert Suff
Here's another sleeper. This little-recognised recording includes one of my favourite recordings of the First Symphony. This is a beautifully-judged performance with the BBC's Welsh orchestra in superb form for their then principal conductor - right up there with the very best recordings. And not just beautifully judged but also very beautiful. The accompanying athletic performance of the Introduction and Allegro makes for a thoroughly satisfying whole.
BIS' recorded sound is at its best - superior here to some of their more recent recordings in my opinion - with careful microphone placement and it's interesting to read that this was recorded to a DAT recorder (remember those).
And now a couple of BBC recordings from early BBC Music Magazine cover discs. [My rips, but with artwork scans from the internet, mainly Discogs. The magazines were purchased in the 1990s when I was living in the UK but the magazines and artwork hasn't survived.]
23. Elgar's First Enigma - A Radio 3 Broadcast. Sketches from Symphony No.3 * [31'36]
Lisa Milne- soprano, Christopher Maltman- baritone, Alan Ewing- bass, Phyllis Cannan- mezzo, Ian Storey- tenor, Niall Morris- tenor, Jonathan Veira- bass-baritone, Scottish Opera Chorus, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra conducted by Anna Manson;
Anthony Payne- elaborator/presenter, Keith Swallow- piano, BBC Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Yan Pascal Tortelier*
BBC Music Magazine BBCMM111 [recorded June and March* 1995, magazine issued October 1995]
[CD-rip; flacs, cover, back and insert scans from internet; Recording venues: Broadcasting House, Glasgow and New Broadcasting House, Manchester; Recording engineers: Tony Kime and Martin Cole & Harold Barnes*; Producers: Simon Lord and Paul Hindmarsh]
Elgar started work on his opera The Spanish Lady around the same time as he was sketching the Third Symphony. The libretto is based on the play The Devil is an Ass by Ben Jonson, satirising Jacobean society and mores. Percy Young arranged and orchestrated Elgar's sketches to make this stand-alone short opera. But the end result does not match the Third Symphony in Anthony Payne's elaboration. To the best of my knowledge, this is the work's only recording.
The accompanying BBC talk by Anthony Payne about his work on the symphony is enlightening. But for a more detailed commentary from Payne, listen to NMC's accompanying disc to Andrew Davis' recording of the symphony (see below).
01. - 04. William Walton - Symphony No. 1 in B-flat minor [46'02]
05. Toru Takemitsu - From me flows what you call Time ^ [30'38]
BBC National Orchestra of Wales conducted by Tadaaki Otaka; Nexus- percussion quintet, BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Andrew Davis^
BBC Music Magazine BBCMM123 [recorded at BBC Promenade concerts in July & August^ 1993; magazine issue July 1994]
[CD-rip; flacs, original and revised cover and insert scans from internet; Recording venue: Royal Albert Hall, London]
No Elgar this time but somebody at BBC Music Magazine must have had a warped sense of humour in having a Japanese conducting the British work and a Brit. conducting the Japanese work. They also failed to notice that they had not credited the Canadian percussion quintet Nexus, for whom Takemitsu wrote his work, at all. Reading Discogs, I found that the magazine reissued the original artwork that came with my copy with a replacement packaged with the May 1995 issue. So I have included scans of the later artwork as well..
Otaka conducts a well-judged performance of the Walton Symphony with the BBC's Welsh orchestra on top form again in front of a rather restless audience. And I'm sure that Nexus, Andrew Davis and the BBC Symphony excel in the Takemitsu but it's not my cup of tea so I can't comment. But I'm sure that reader Jos will find much to enjoy from Nexus if he doesn't already have a recording of From me flows what you call Time.
And for completeness, a reminder that you can find all the recordings of the Third Symphony here on MIMIC. Colin Davis' recording with the London Symphony and Paul Daniel's with the Bournemouth Symphony are in one of Davide's mega posts and my post of Andrew Davis' pioneering recording with the BBC Symphony is here and Richard Hickox's with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales is here.