David Stewart wrote:

>I have recently become addicted to Elgar.  I have got to the stage where
>I have been able to listen to his second symphony 2 times on the trot.
>But I need more, so recommendations would be much apreciated.  I have:
>
>Symphonies 1,2,(3)

Firstly, it had better be said that, so far, there is only one commercial
recording available of Anthony Payne's version of the Third Symphony
material.  It is Andrew Davis's with the BBC Symphony on NMC.  As Roger
Hecht has said a number of times, let us hope that more will follow.  The
Davis CD is good, but it was made some time before the first public
performance and Davis and the orchestra have refined their view of it.  I
have two off-air tapes of subsequent live performances, one of the first
public performance and one of the Proms performance last summer (of which
I also have a video of the telecast.) Both are to be preferred.

Don't know what you already have, of course, but you ought to hear Sir John
Barbirolli in the the first two symphonies.  He recorded both twice and his
later EMI stereo versions are the easiest to find.  James Judd and the
Halle in the First is also worth hearing too.

>Enigma

My own favourite is Barbirolli and the Halle from the 1950s but that might
be out of the catalogue now so JB's later Philharmonia version on EMI is
the one to get coupled as it is with, for me, the best Falstaff of all.

>Intro & Allegro for Strings

There is a marevllous recording of this by Benjamin Britten that isn't
mentioned enough on Decca.  Failing that, Barbirolli or Boult.

>Serenade for Strings
>Elegy for Strings

These two are usually coupled together.  The usual suspects won't let you
down.

>Cello Concerto

Everyone else will tell you that Jaqueline du Pre with the LSO and
Barbirolli is the definitive version so there is no need for me to plug
it too hard.  I admire it but I would point you to other views which are
slightly less emotionally charged.  Beatrice Harrison with Elgar himself
conducting (coupled with the boy Menhiun in the Violin Concerto) should be
in every collection and Julian Lloyd Webber's version with Menhiun on
Phillips is surprisingly fine.

No mention of the Violin Concerto, David.  You must have that too and my
own favourite is Hugh Bean and the RLPO under Groves but there is a version
by Ida Haendel with Boult that first came out on EMI but which has just
been reissued on Testament.

>I have heard of a piece called the kingdom - is this a good one?

Yes.  It is the second part of a projected trilogy of oratorios of which
The Apostoles is the first part.  Boult preferred it to The Dream of
Gerontius.  Boult's own recording is the one I like best.

You DO have The Dream of Gerontius in you collection, I hope.  My
own favourite recording is Sargent's on Testament with Heddle Nash as
Gerontius.  But Barbirolli with Janet Baker as the Angel on EMI is a great
stereo alternative.

Tony Duggan
Staffordshire,
United Kingdom.