Andrew Achenbach writes:
Here’s another fascinating haul of historic Elgar recordings from Somm expertly compiled and restored by Lani Spahr. The 77-minute programme is launched in delectable fashion with the first-ever appearance of the composer conducting his own Op 58 Elegy with the strings of Adrian Boult’s magnificent BBC Symphony Orchestra. The April 1933 Abbey Road sessions took place some four and a half months before what proved to be the 76-year-old composer’s final appearance in front of the HMV microphones, an afternoon in Kingsway Hall with the LPO which produced the commercially released version of the same work. Comparative listening reveals conspicuously greater ......
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