The best recording
Georg Solti (conductor)
London Philharmonic Orchestra
Decca 443 8562
Composers are not necessarily the best interpreters of their own music, but Elgar’s visits to the recording studio must be taken seriously. He left us a valuable legacy of some of his greatest works, including a fiery, no-nonsense account of the First Symphony with the London Symphony Orchestra, a 1930 performance that is the historical benchmark and, with the recorded sound cleaned up, comes up surprisingly well. No further recording appeared thereafter until 1949, when Sir Adrian Boult set down the first of his four extant accounts, this with the London Philharmonic Orchestra. Today the Elgar First discography is in rude health, boasting over 50 available versions.
Georg Solti had already studied the composer’s recordings before entering London’s Kingsway Hall to record his own interpretations, but these are no copycat affairs. In fact, Solti’s account of the First Symphony caused quite a stir when issued in 1972. Even today, it is regarded as contentious by many Elgar devotees, who will likely stick with Boult or Barbirolli, but Solti’s is probably the recording to recommend to all Elgar agnostics out there – that, at least, is how it struck this listener when hearing the original LP for the first time over 50 years ago.
This is Elgar without pomp and circumstance, but a performance full of life and vitality. For Solti, nobilmente does not mean grandiose. The London Philharmonic could (and still can) play Elgar in its sleep, but here Solti takes it out of its comfort zone in a performance that is an exhilarating, edge-of-the-seat ride, unmatched on disc for sheer excitement. Solti delivers an inspired, clear-headed and no-holds-barred realisation of a great symphony, and if there was any initial resistance by the players to the conductor’s unbuttoned delivery of Elgar’s score, it certainly doesn’t register here, as the orchestra plays with a wonderful sweep and energy that carries all before it.
While Solti’s reputation as ‘The Screaming Skull’ certainly rings true for some of his later Chicago Symphony Orchestra recordings, it doesn’t apply here. The listener is offered brilliance without brutality, generosity of spirit without sentimentality, and the sense of a genuine collaboration from everyone concerned. Captured in superb analogue sound, Solti did nothing better with Decca than this. After the recording sessions one can imagine the ghost of Elgar congratulating him with an approving ‘Well done, m’b
