Roger Hecht, forehead presumably furrowed in bewilderment:

>But are I and my wife the only people in the world who can't stand
>Slatkin's Second? We must be.  I've tried several times and to me, it's
>so drawn out that Slatkin seems to be draining the life out of the piece.
>It's probably one of the few recordings that comes close to making me
>dislike the piece--and that takes some doing!  I think at this point, I'd
>be grateful to hear from one other person who dislikes this performance.
>I feel like I'm opposing motherhood here.  Bad enough I'm an American who
>doesn't don't like cars, but this?

On the contrary, Roger!  My first version of the 2nd was a little-known
Boult version he made with the Scottish National (originally for the
Waverley label, IIRC).  I also tried his Lyrita version which was better
but didn't affect me as much as the 1st always did.  I heard Barbirolli
(don't recall which), which I found too slow, Solti, rather perfunctory.
I heard Slatkin on the radio, found myself involved in the music as never
before, and just had to buy it.  I remember striking up a conversation on
a train between Edinburgh and London - the man I was talking to had very
similar musical tastes to mine, but when I raised Slatkin's Elgar 2nd,
which I'd only recently bought, I was left in no doubt that American
conductors performing English composers, particularly Elgar, was total
anathema.  I don't recall the man's name but he lived in Blackheath.  So
you're not alone after all:-)

Richard Pennycuick
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