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Fri, 9 Jun 2000 16:11:52 -0500 |
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Achim Breiling on the new Naxos recording:
>Maybe its not as dramatic or bombastic as Elgars previous symphonies,
>but it has some kind of relaxed beauty and grandeur one would expect from
>a last work of a composer. Highly recommended! By the way I think I read
>somewhere that Payne did some changes in the score for this recording
>(compared to the older one on NMC). Is this true?
I would not have chosen the perjorative "bombastic" to describe those
wonderful earlier symphonies - Edo Dewaart once described Elgar as (if
my memory is accurate) as a "misty Mahler." I too read a review (in that
new International Review?) which stated that Payne made some changes. I
also heard Payne interviewed, and he stated that the relative emotional
austerity of the Third was a response to the new times- the age of
Hindemith as he put it. I have the older recording, enjoy the work
greatly, but often wonder: how much of it is real Elgar? Perhaps it
doesn't matter- we should take it for what it is. Incidentally another
reconstruction of an unfinished work seems to me much more controversial,
Charles Ive's Universe Symphony - I forget the name of the finisher.
That is such an odd and visionary work, that I wonder whether or not
it represents what Ives had in mind- although his odd and visionary
credentials are strong ones. I would be grateful for any enlightenment
on this subject.
Professor Bernard Chasan
Physics Department, Boston University
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