01. - 04. Edward Elgar - Symphony No.1 in A-flat major, op.55 [52'34]
05. - 07. Edward Elgar - Pomp & Circumstance Marches. No.1 in D major; No.3 in C minor; No.4 in G major, op.39 [17'36]
Disc 2
01. Edward Elgar - In The South (Alassio), op.50 [21'51]
02. - 05. Edward Elgar - Symphony No.2 in E-flat major, op.63 [56'28]
BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Andrew Davis
Warner (Teldec) Ultima 0630 189512 (recorded 1991 & 1992; this CD release 1997)
Recording venue: Barking Town Hall & St Augustine's Church, London
Recording engineer: Tony Faulkner; Producer: Christopher Palmer
Here's another excellent Elgar twofer from Warner/Teldec's series of recordings of British music with Andrew Davis and the BBC Symphony Orchestra. Here again, the superb recording quality is provided by the Tony Faulkner and Christopher Palmer team with near-perfect balances. It's interesting to compare this issue with Tony Faulkner's later recordings of the two symphonies with Andrew's namesake Colin Davis for the LSO label. The latter are quite awful sounding in comparison. It seems that even a great engineer such as Tony Faulkner can't do anything with the Barbican's acoustic.
The performances remain among the finest available and only rarely challenged in later recordings- only Sakari Oramo in Stockholm and Daniel Barenboim in Berlin come to mind.