Edward Elgar - Symphonie Nr.1 in As-Dur
Sir John Barbirolli /
Philharmonia Orchestra
EMI CLASSICS / Recorded in August 1962 / Issued in 2001
What can one say? One loves Barbirolli's Elgar in spite of everything. In this instance 'everything' might refer to his monolithic pacing of the First Symphony: the somewhat leaden first movement in which the drama of Elgar's tempo contrasts (and the relationships therein) go for nought and the fleeting lyric remnants (gorgeous in themselves) never sound threatened. Consider, too, the finale's allegro: so very measured; whatever happened to its urgency, the shock of impulse? I think the answer is that you don't ask, nor do you make direct comparisons with the likes of Slatkin (RCA, 6/91) or Tate (EMI, 1/93) whose big, brave, dangerous readings (prime choices, both) take Elgarian instability to its limits. Barbirolli is Barbirolli, and that, at the very least, means wholehearted. I've come to expect the first subject of the slow movement to breathe more imperceptively into life (all the lower dynamics could be more rarefied), but don't ever expect to hear it more richly or spontaneously bowed. The cellos, of course, enjoy Barbirolli's very special attention (such a warm, refulgent sound), but it's the overall style of the string playing (impossible to imitate, indeed to describe) that remains such an abiding pleasure. After fig. 104 at around 8'56'' (molto espressivo et sostenuto) just listen to the violins negotiate their ascent to the high C sharp—that's what it's all about. And again, at that moment of supreme rapture in the finale (the transformation of the cadaverous opening march), how often does one hear such intensity and sweetness of tone from a body of violins?
EMI's 1962 Kingsway Hall recordings (superbly remastered) perfectly enshrine the Barbirolli bloom: Cockaigne is possessed of a Falstaffian girth and jollity. Nobody's first choices, then, but essential collectors items. I await the equally controversial but yet more potent account of the Second Symphony in EMI's 1964 recording with the Halle.
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