Hi-Do Shin wrote:

>* CD TItle: Edward Elgar/Symphonies & Orchestral Works
>* Conductor: Sir Adrian Boult
>* Orchestra: London Philharmonic Orchestra
>* Label: EMI (Made in Japan)

>The website doesn't give me a lot of details about the recordings.  It only
>says that these are MONO recordings, but I am not even sure if that applies
>to all the works in the CD set.

I'm guessing that these are the recordings Boult made around the 50s or so.
I forget exactly and haven't heard them in years.  I remember he recorded
Enigma twice with the LPO, once in mono, once in stereo.  I'm guessing this
is the mono.

As I so often do, I'm speaking from some long memory, but I recall liking
these performances.  Boult was a more energetic conductor in those days
than when he made his last recordings of Elgar in the 70s, so these
performances were more lively than the stereo issues which, I suspect,
are the ones Grammophone is talking about--most of the time anyway.

Still, they are mono, so if you want the symphonies with Boult in better
sound, try his stereo EMIs (which are better than the stereo Lyritas).
And yes, I think these are wonderful performances.  Slow, magisterial,
noble.  I like them better than the monos--for the interpretation and for
the sound--but I suspect others would not agree on the first criterion.
They're nothing like Solti's, which are faster (like Elgar's own) and
sleeker.  And if you do want slow, there is certainly Barbirolli.  As for
Solti, I can understand your not likeing his Elgar, particulary the First,
though I do like his Second.

And that said, there are a lot of good performances of both works.

Roger Hecht