Information
Composer: Edward Elgar
- In the South 'Alassio', Op. 50
- Variations for orchestra 'Enigma', Op. 36
- Carillon, Op. 75
- Une voix dans le désert, Op. 77
- Le drapeau belge, Op. 79
- Pleading, Op. 48
BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra
Martyn Brabbins, conductor
Date: 2016
Label: Hyperion
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Martyn Brabbins masterminds an expansive, ideally flexible and notably unflustered reading of Elgar’s In the South, one which quarries this evocative score’s plentiful reserves of noble grandeur, pantheistic wonder and vulnerability in a way that perceptively demonstrates its kinship with the First Symphony that was soon to follow. In the Grandioso episode starting at fig 20 or 7'01" the Roman legions certainly march by with suitably menacing swagger. However, it’s the softer moments that truly stand out: the principal viola’s ravishing ‘Canto popolare’ at the work’s intimate heart is as wistfully fragrant as I can ever recall; and what breathtaking hush these impressive artists convey at the beginning of the mighty home stretch (try from the tranquillo marking at fig 51 or 19'03").
Brabbins proves a comparably unhurried, affectionate and cannily observant guide through Enigma, the friends pictured within springing to life with unforced naturalness. As ever in Elgar, the antiphonal placement of first and second violins pays handsome dividends, and felicitous touches abound, not least the gorgeously shimmering textures of ‘CAE’ (whose reappearance in the finale has an overwhelming rightness about it) and the strings’ whiplash attack at the start of ‘GRS’. Other highlights include an especially tender ‘WN’, generously songful ‘BGN’ and deeply moving ‘Romanza’. Like Pierre Monteux’s famous 1958 LSO version, ‘Nimrod’ sets out at a genuinely ear-pricking ppp, but the string timbre in Glasgow sounds a tad clinical by the side of that glowing Kingsway Hall production.
We’re also treated to a trio of patriotic wartime offerings in support of occupied Belgium. Each benefits from some superbly articulate orchestral playing, narrator Florence Daguerre de Hureaux declaims Emile Cammaerts’s French texts to the manner born, and soprano Kate Royal makes an eloquent contribution in Une voix dans le désert (by some margin the most imaginative of the group). Finally, and pushing the playing time to over 80 minutes, comes a first recording of Elgar’s purely orchestral arrangement of his own 1908 song ‘Pleading’, which shows the BBC Scottish SO’s long-standing Principal Clarinet, Yann Ghiro, at his considerable best.
To sum up, an enjoyable and stimulating anthology that Elgarians everywhere should try and hear.
-- Andrew Achenbach, Gramophone
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Edward Elgar (2 June 1857 – 23 February 1934) was an English composer, whose works have entered the British and international classical concert repertoire. Among his best-known compositions are orchestral works including the Enigma Variations, the Pomp and Circumstance Marches, concertos for violin and cello, and two symphonies. He also composed choral works, including The Dream of Gerontius, chamber music and songs. Elgar has been described as the first composer to take the gramophone seriously. Between 1914 and 1925, he conducted a series of acoustic recordings of his own works.
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Martyn Brabbins (born 13 August 1959) is a British conductor. He studied composition at Goldsmiths, University of London, and conducting with Ilya Musin at the Leningrad Conservatory. Between 1994 and 2005, Brabbins was Associate Principal Conductor of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. He made a significant mark through recordings not in standard repertory and as one of the main conductors involved in Hyperion's extensive Romantic Piano Concerto series. Brabbins has conducted commercial recordings of music for such labels as Warner, Chandos, Hyperion, NMC, Nimbus, and Deutsche Grammophon.
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