Just picked up Elgar's 2nd with Davis/BBC at Tower Outlet for $4.99. I haven't listened to this symphony in a few years, and I must confess that back then it didn't make much sense to me, my expectations having been impacted by very recent love affairs with the "Enigma Variations," and the "Symphony #1." If there is anyone that proves that there is, (was), still plenty of good music to be written in Eb major, it is Elgar. His music sounds so conservative yet so fresh at the same time. I'm sure this is old hat for many of you, but I have to point out how taken I am by the depth and poignancy of the slow mov't, (punctuated by the soft bass drum strokes w/harp); and the delicious mystery of the "night music" first introduced in the middle of the first mov't--esp. the part underpinned with bass drum. If I may, while the 1st symphony sounds very Germanic/Brahmsian but still completely English, (if this makes sense); the 2nd, (to me), has a Russian feel to it. The night music reminds me of the mysterious central section of the third mov't of Rachmaninoff's "Symphonic Dances," while the trombone lines and brass punctuation remind me of Tchaikovsky. Great stuff! John Smyth