Streaming the Classics—Elgar Violin Concerto
Do you ever type a streaming query into Roon or other content management software for a classical work and are overwhelmed by the choices? Rather than clicking on any old recording or the first one you see, Audiophilia will make things a little easier for you and do the heavy listening.
These choices are for streaming only. Is the best in streaming also the best vinyl or CD recording and performance? That’s for another article.
A few criteria:
Recording must be on Apple Music, Qobuz, or Tidal HiFi.
It does not have to be HiRes or MQA, but should be at least CD Red Book quality.
No more than ten recommendations in no particular order, then our top three for streaming in order of preference.
We are the music makers,
And we are the dreamers of dreams,
Wandering by lone sea-breakers, And sitting by desolate streams...
This is the opening phrase sung by the chorus in Elgar’s The Music Makers, a work Elgar had been working on since 1903 and finally completed in 1912 in which he set the words of Arthur O’ Shaugnessy for choir, alto soloist and orchestra. The words were very appealing to Elgar who identified with the romantic notion of the isolated artist struggling to be recognised and struck a chord with his own feelings stretching back to his childhood. His friend Hubert Leicester wrote that Elgar could be more often found down by the River Severn trying to write down the sounds of the reeds blowing on the river bank in musical notation.
Elgar was a complicated man who suffered from bouts of depression and could be inconsolable if things didn’t go right but was also uncontrollably jolly and mischievous when they went well. He had a love of puns and word games and loved being an enigma to his friends. This was how he liked the world to see him and it helped to hide his real feelings and emotions which he poured into his music.
The Violin Concerto in B minor, Op. 61 was commissioned in 1907 at the instigation of Fritz Kreisler, the most admired violinist of the day. Kreisler gave the first performance of it in 1910 with Elgar conducting. It was an immediate success prompting the equally famous violinist Eugène Ysaÿe to learn it immediately. It proved to be the last of Elgar's instant successes.
As usual, Elgar was happy to leave the identity of his muse to speculation and over the years a number of ladies have been linked to the concerto’s composition.
The concerto is one of the longest and most spectacular in the repertoire. Unfortunately, Kreisler never recorded it and also found it very difficult to play, so, it eventually fell to English players and most famously Yehudi Menuhin who launched it onto the world stage when he recorded it with Elgar conducting the LSO in 1932.
To me, it is Elgar's greatest work and despite its enormous technical demands, it also has an intimacy to draw in the audience into a very personal world which is the key to its success.
So, which recordings available today are worth hearing?
This recording was made in 1929 and despite the limited sound, it is a stupendous performance from a violinist who knew Elgar and performed it with him many times. To me it is a violinist tour de force and should be heard at least once even if historical recordings are not your thing.
Recorded in 1932 in the newly opened Abbey Road Studios, this is the most famous recording of the Violin Concerto and shows what a remarkable young man Menuhin was to nail this recording at such a young age with Elgar on the same platform. The sound is acceptable in whichever version you hear it. In fact, the Naxos remastering stands as a remarkable achievement for all concerned.
This performance is closely linked to the Sammons’ recording as Hugh Bean was a pupil of his and plays the concerto on Sammons’ Matteo Goffriller violin. It's a fine performance which is well worth hearing and well recorded in 1973. It would be a great comparison with the Sammons, recommended above.
In 1965, Menuhin recorded the concerto again, this time with Adrian Boult, who went on the record it with a number of eminent violinists. This recording gives you an opportunity to enjoy Menuhin’s playing in modern sound.
Jascha Heifetz only recorded the concerto once (1949) but the sound is good and he displays a virtuosity that is dazzling. He loved the concerto and although I think it is more Heifetz than Elgar, I’m sure Elgar would have been amazed. If Heifetz fans haven't already got this performance, it's on Naxos coupled with the Walton concerto.
Alfredo Campoli recorded the concerto twice with Boult, and it is the 1969 stereo version that I prefer. Campoli was a friend of Elgar and performs this concerto more as a romance for violin and orchestra which works very well and his performance achieves the level of intimacy that I think Elgar intended. Another fine performance which makes Boult follow him intently and with fine results.
Nigel Kennedy made this his calling card in the 1980s and it has stood the test of time. He also recorded it with Simon Rattle in 1997. Of the two performances, I prefer the first with Handley.
Pinchas Zukerman recorded this account in 1976 and it is very idiomatic but with the sense of emotional involvement that Elgar would have approved. The sound is spacious and vibrant and worth a listen.
Phillipe Graffin presents a deeply thought out account of the concerto and is well supported by the RLPO and Handley. Graffin plays from the original score and his reading is both powerful and thoughtful.
The latest of the new generation of recordings finds us with another power house performance and is very worthy of your time.
It's so difficult to shortlist so many interesting and moving performances but my final three choices are:
Albert Sammons, Alfredo Campoli (later stereo recording) and Philippe Graffin.
The choices are not for the same reasons but because they offer a strong cross section of the genius of this concerto, though, many more can be explored and compared. It is a lifetime road to enlightenment and this brings me to my last point of intrigue
As Elgar lay on his deathbed he was visited by the critic and old friend Ernest Newman. Elgar informed him of the existence of a daughter born to a theatre performer who Elgar had been involved with for a time whilst working in London during the early years of the century. He asked Newman to make sure that the girl was looked after financially and Newman, although rather shocked, agreed to help as much as he could. Elgar has been linked to several ladies and we will never know the full extent of his friendships, however, when Newman mentioned this to various confidants in the music world including Sir Henry Wood he was surprised to find they knew of the existence of the girl and that she had a birth certificate with the name Elgar written on it.
Such is the nature of these findings, I am not entering into any kiss and tell controversy, but I do feel that this explains a lot about the emotion in Elgar the man and in his music. His magnificent Violin Concerto in B minor explores an emotional side Elgar did not readily show without wrapping the emotions in a riddle as to individual identities.
For me, Elgar sums up the emotions and dramas of his age and rather cleverly hides from plain sight that which was most personal to him.
The Violin Concerto in B minor is the greatest testament to these emotions.
