LPO Label digital booklet - D928 Elgar: The Legacy Vol. 2

ELGAR: THE LEGACY

VOL. 2 (1949–50)

2

ELGAR: THE LEGACY

VOL. 2 (1949–50)

1 13:08 COCKAIGNE OVERTURE, OP. 40 (‘IN LONDON TOWN’)

Eduard van Beinum conductor

Recorded at Kingsway Hall, London, on 9, 10 & 13 May 1949 ℗ 2023 London Philharmonic Orchestra. Kenneth Wilkinson engineer Victor Olaf producer

2 03:41 ELEGY FOR STRINGS, OP. 58

Eduard van Beinum conductor

Recorded at Kingsway Hall, London, on 9, 10 & 13 May 1949 ℗ 2023 London Philharmonic Orchestra. Kenneth Wilkinson engineer Victor Olaf producer

3–9 19:31 THE WAND OF YOUTH, SUITE NO. 1, OP. 1A

Eduard van Beinum conductor

Recorded at Kingsway Hall, London, on 4–5 February 1949 ℗ 2023 London Philharmonic Orchestra. Kenneth Wilkinson engineer Victor Olaf producer

i) 01:21 Overture

ii) 02:38 Serenade

iii) 02:13 Minuet (Old Style)

iv) 02:17 Sun Dance

v) 04:11 Fairy Pipers

vi) 03:53 Slumber Scene

vii) 03:00 Fairies and Giants

10–15 14:44 THE WAND OF YOUTH, SUITE NO. 2, OP. 1B

Eduard van Beinum conductor

Recorded at Kingsway Hall, London, on 13 February 1950 ℗ 2007 London Philharmonic Orchestra. Victor Olaf producer

i) 03:51 March

ii) 02:24 The Little Bells (Scherzino)

iii) 02:00 Moths and Butterflies (Dance)

iv) 02:41 Fountain Dance

v) 01:43 The Tame Bear

vi) 02:09 The Wild Bears

16–19 26:32 CELLO CONCERTO IN E MINOR, OP. 85

Eduard van Beinum conductor Anthony Pini cello

Recorded at Kingsway Hall, London, on 13 May 1949 (with four sides being remade at Kingsway Hall, 12 April 1950) ℗ 2023 London Philharmonic Orchestra. Kenneth Wilkinson engineer Victor Olaf producer

i) 06:40 Adagio – Moderato

ii) 04:39 Lento – Allegro molto

iii) 04:28 Adagio

iv) 10:48 Allegro – Moderato – Allegro, ma non troppo – Poco più lento – Adagio

20–21 08:19 FANTASIA & FUGUE IN C MINOR, OP. 86 (AFTER J S BACH, BWV 537)

Sir Adrian Boult conductor

Recorded at Abbey Road Studios, London, on 3 October 1949 ℗ 2007 London Philharmonic Orchestra. Anthony Griffith/Arthur Clarke engineers Lawrence Collingwood/David Bicknell producers

i) 04:54 Fantasia

ii) 03:26 Fugue

Post-production Andrew Walton, K&A Productions (Tracks 1–9, 16–19); Mike Dutton (Tracks 10–15); James Waterhouse, K&A Productions (Tracks 20–21)

Analogue Transfers Mike Clements (Tracks 1–9, 16–21)

ELGAR: THE LEGACY VOL. 2 (1949–50)

BY ANDREW NEILL

1 COCKAIGNE OVERTURE, OP. 40 (‘IN LONDON TOWN’)

2 ELEGY FOR STRINGS, OP. 58

Eduard van Beinum conductor

Dutch conductor Eduard van Beinum was born in Arnhem in 1901 and died in Amsterdam in 1959. After some immediate post-war concerts with the London Philharmonic Orchestra he was appointed Principal Conductor in 1947. At the time, he was also Principal Conductor of the Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam. During his two years with the LPO he did much to raise the playing standards of the Orchestra, then still recovering from the privations of the Second World War.

Amsterdam’s great orchestra enjoyed an established relationship with the music of Gustav Mahler. Van Beinum inherited this tradition and with the LPO in 1946 made the first recording of Mahler’s music in Britain: the Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen with mezzo-soprano Eugenia Zareska. Van Beinum also showed, as a non-native, a welcome willingness to perform and record British music, conducting Malcolm Arnold’s Beckus the Dandipratt – the first recording of the composer’s music – in December 1947. His choice of pieces by Elgar for recording was also shrewd. Elgar had recorded much of his own music for HMV but, with one or two exceptions, most of the less obvious pieces awaited a new recording. Van Beinum’s first Elgar recordings for the Decca label were made in May 1949, beginning with the

Cockaigne Overture, continuing with the Elegy, and ending with the Cello Concerto. The latter required some rerecording and, as additional sessions were necessary, these were scheduled in April 1950. The Cockaigne Overture, the third time it had been recorded, is one of the finest on record, van Beinum and the Orchestra understanding the differences between the music’s swagger and its reflective moments.

3–9 THE WAND OF YOUTH, SUITE NO. 1, OP. 1A

10–15 THE WAND OF YOUTH, SUITE NO. 2, OP. 1B

Eduard van Beinum conductor

The delicate orchestration of some of Elgar’s Wand of Youth pieces is a test for any orchestra, and these recordings are a tribute to the recovery the LPO had made since hostilities ended in 1945. The first Suite was recorded in February 1949 and the second 12 months later. Decca was one of the first British recording companies to use tape, a technology acquired from Germany after the Second World War, and it is possible that the LPO was the first major orchestra to be recorded using this new medium. While on tour in Germany in 1936, the Orchestra, conducted by Beecham, performed in the BASF Feierabendhaus in Ludwigshafen and part of the concert was recorded by a Magnetophon recorder manufactured by AEG. Although a tape recorder may have been used in some of the later van Beinum sessions, all the discs issued have 78rpm matrix numbers.

16–19 CELLO CONCERTO IN E MINOR, OP. 85

Eduard van Beinum conductor

Anthony Pini cello

Elgar’s now much-performed Cello Concerto had been recorded ‘acoustically’ by Elgar and soloist Beatrice Harrison in an abridged version in 1919 and 1920, and then complete ‘electrically’ in 1928. Until the introduction of the microphone in 1925/26, recordings were made with musicians huddled around a recording horn which projected from the studio wall, behind which the record cutting machinery was attached. The microphone, as well as allowing a greater flexibility produced a greater dynamic range and clarity. For orchestral recordings, the players could now be spread across the stage as for a performance.

Two years later in 1930, rival label Columbia recorded the Concerto with William Squire, but it was not until 1946 that Sir Adrian Boult and Pablo Casals made their celebrated version with the BBC Symphony Orchestra. Argentinianborn Anthony Pini (1902–89) was the LPO’s Principal Cellist before the Second World War, but moved to join Sir Thomas Beecham’s newly formed Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in 1947. His recording of Elgar’s Concerto, therefore, faced strong competition, but is more than a match for the Casals/ Boult version, as Pini and van Beinum proved to be a sound and perceptive combination.

Eduard van Beinum in 1946

20–21 FANTASIA & FUGUE IN C MINOR, OP. 86 (AFTER J S BACH, BWV 537)

Sir Adrian Boult conductor

These early post-war recording sessions were a major contribution to the Orchestra’s reputation, the warm but clear acoustic of London’s Kingsway Hall and the skill of engineer Kenneth Wilkinson producing startling results for the time. Wilkinson became one of Sir Adrian Boult’s favourite engineers and it was Boult (1889–1983) who was appointed as the Orchestra’s Principal Conductor in 1950. He held the position until 1957 but continued a close association with the Orchestra until his retirement. He was one of the few conductors who made recordings though an acoustic horn and lived to see the introduction of the digital process. Boult recorded more of Elgar’s music than any other conductor, including the Second Symphony five times (three of them with the LPO) and the First Symphony three times (all with the LPO). Although the LPO’s residency at Glyndebourne meant that other London orchestras were involved in summer recording sessions, most of Boult’s recordings were made with the LPO during his so-called ‘Indian summer’ from the mid 1960s.

Elgar, like most of his contemporaries, was in no doubt as to the greatness of J S Bach, and had jointly edited an edition of the St Matthew Passion with Sir Ivor Atkins, organist of Worcester Cathedral, who undertook most of the work. The re-orchestration of Bach’s music was, by the second decade of the 20th century, increasingly common, notably in the

hands of conductors such as Leopold Stokowski and Sir Henry Wood. While renting a cottage in the woods near Pulborough in Sussex, Elgar turned his mind to Bach’s music, and his daughter Carice noted that he was ‘busy orchestrating Bach’s Fugue in C minor’. His choice, BWV 537, was completed within a month, the score dated ‘Ap. 24: 1921’. Writing to Atkins, Elgar said: ‘many arrgts have been made of Bach on the “pretty” scale & I wanted to show how gorgeous & great & brilliant he would have made himself sound if he had our means’.

Despite four years of war as well as linguistic barriers (neither spoke the other’s language), Elgar and Richard Strauss (1864–1949) had maintained a friendly relationship since they had met in Düsseldorf in 1902, when Strauss had praised Elgar and the performance of The Dream of Gerontius he had just heard. Following the conclusion of hostilities in 1918, Elgar made enquiries as to Strauss’s health and arranged a dinner for him on 22 January 1922, when the younger composer visited London. The previous month Elgar had recorded his version of the Bach Fugue, and it is likely that it was then that he suggested to Strauss that the latter orchestrated the Fantasia. Nothing came of it and Elgar made his own subtly orchestrated transcription. In 1923 he would transcribe the overture to Handel’s second Chandos Anthem and in 1932 the funeral march from Chopin’s B flat minor Piano Sonata, Op. 35. However, the flamboyance and virtuosity of the Fugue’s orchestration sets it apart even as Elgar remains faithful to Bach. When Elgar ‘lets his hair down’ it is stunning, as here. Purists may find this sort of thing

difficult to swallow, but the brilliance of what Elgar achieves makes this one of the finest of Bach transcriptions.

Andrew Neill was Chairman of the Elgar Society from 1992–2008. He has contributed programme and booklet notes on the music of Elgar, Strauss, Vaughan Williams and their contemporaries for the LPO and other orchestras, and has broadcast and written extensively about these composers for a wide range of journals and publications.

The LPO wishes to thank Philip Stuart, the David Michell estate, and Jonathan Summers at the British Library for facilitating this release. Cover photograph © Adobe Stock.

Sir Adrian Boult

LONDON PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA

The London Philharmonic Orchestra is one of the world’s finest orchestras, balancing a long and distinguished history with its present-day position as one of the most dynamic and forward-looking ensembles in the UK. This reputation has been secured by the Orchestra’s performances in the concert hall and opera house, its many award-winning recordings, trailblazing international tours and wide-ranging educational work.

Founded by Sir Thomas Beecham in 1932, the Orchestra has since been headed by many of the world’s greatest conductors, including Sir Adrian Boult, Bernard Haitink, Sir Georg Solti, Klaus Tennstedt and Kurt Masur. In September 2021 Edward Gardner became the Orchestra’s Principal Conductor, succeeding Vladimir Jurowski, who became Conductor Emeritus in recognition of his transformative impact on the Orchestra as Principal Conductor from 2007–21.

The Orchestra is based at the Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall in London, where it has been Resident Orchestra since 1992. Each summer it takes up its annual residency at Glyndebourne Festival Opera where it has been Resident Symphony Orchestra for over 50 years. The Orchestra performs at venues around the UK and has made numerous international tours, performing to sell-out audiences in America, Europe, Asia and Australasia.

The London Philharmonic Orchestra made its first recordings on 10 October 1932, just three days after its first public performance. It has recorded and broadcast regularly ever since, and in 2005 established its own record label. These recordings are taken mainly from live concerts given by conductors including those with LPO Principal Conductors from Beecham and Boult, through Haitink, Solti, Tennstedt and Masur, to Jurowski and Gardner.