Elgar Symphony No. 1 discography

The first recording of Edward Elgar's Symphony No 1 was made by the London Symphony Orchestra in 1930, conducted by the composer for His Master's Voice (a label absorbed into the EMI recording group the following year). The recording was reissued on long-playing record (LP) in 1970,[1] and on compact disc in 1992 as part of EMI's "Elgar Edition" of all the composer's electrical recordings of his works.[2]

After 1931, the work had no further gramophone recordings until Sir Adrian Boult's 1950 recording (see below). During the 1950s there was only one other new recording of the symphony, and in the 1960s there were only two. In the 1970s there were four new recordings. In the 1980s there were six, and the 1990s saw twelve. Ten new recordings were released in the first decade of the 21st century.[3]

Recordings by date
Conductor Orchestra Label Recording date Release date
The composer London Symphony Orchestra EMI 20–22 November 1930 1931
Sir Adrian Boult London Philharmonic Orchestra EMI 1949 1950[4]
Sir John Barbirolli Hallé Orchestra Pye 1954 1957[5]
Sir John Barbirolli Hallé Orchestra Barbirolli Society 30 January 1958 (live)
Sir John Barbirolli Philharmonia Orchestra EMI 1962 1963
Sir Adrian Boult London Philharmonic Orchestra Lyrita January 1968 1968
Constantin Silvestri Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra BBC Legends 25 July 1968 (live) 2006
Sir John Barbirolli Hallé Orchestra BBC Legends 1970 (live) 2002
Sir Georg Solti London Philharmonic Orchestra Decca February 1972 1972
Daniel Barenboim London Philharmonic Orchestra CBS 1974 1974
Sir Alexander Gibson Scottish National Orchestra RCA 1976 (?) 1976
Sir Adrian Boult BBC Symphony Orchestra BBC Radio Classics 1976 (live) 1995
Sir Adrian Boult BBC Symphony Orchestra BBC Music Magazine 28 July 1976 (live) 2006
Sir Adrian Boult London Philharmonic Orchestra EMI September 1976 1977
Vernon Handley London Philharmonic Orchestra EMI 1979 1980
James Loughran Hallé Orchestra ASV 1981
Bernard Haitink Philharmonia Orchestra EMI 1983 1983
Sir John Pritchard BBC Symphony Orchestra BBC Radio Classics 1983 (live) 1996
Vernon Handley London Philharmonic Orchestra LPO 23 February 1984 (live) 2010
André Previn Royal Philharmonic Orchestra Philips 1985 1986
Sir Colin Davis BBC Symphony Orchestra RCA 13 May 1985 (live) 1996
Bryden Thomson London Philharmonic Orchestra Chandos October 1985 1986
Yehudi Menuhin Royal Philharmonic Orchestra Virgin 1989
Sir Charles Mackerras London Symphony Orchestra Decca April 1990 1991
Leonard Slatkin London Philharmonic Orchestra RCA 1990 1991
Sir Neville Marriner Academy of St Martin in the Fields Collins 1991
David Zinman Baltimore Symphony Orchestra Telarc January 1991 1992
James Judd Hallé Orchestra Pickwick 1991
Sir Andrew Davis BBC Symphony Orchestra Teldec 1991 1991
Giuseppe Sinopoli Philharmonia Orchestra DG 1991 1992
Jeffrey Tate London Symphony Orchestra EMI 1991 1992
Tadaaki Otaka NHK Symphony Orchestra King International 20 November 1991 (live) 2017
George Hurst BBC Philharmonic Naxos April 1992 1993
Julian Clayton Chetham's Symphony Orchestra Olympia 1995
William Boughton English Symphony Orchestra Nimbus June 1995 1995
Tadaaki Otaka BBC National Orchestra of Wales BIS 1995 1996
Stephen Somary Thüringen Philharmonie (Suhl) Claves 1996 1996
Bramwell Tovey National Youth Orchestra of Scotland NYOS August 1997 1998
Sir Colin Davis Dresden Staatskapelle Hänssler Profil 1998 2006
Sir Colin Davis London Symphony Orchestra LSO Live 2001 (live) 2002
Sir Mark Elder Hallé Orchestra Hallé July 2002 2003
Sir Roger Norrington Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra Hänssler 27–29 October 1999 (live) 2000
Jeffrey Tate Melbourne Symphony Orchestra ABC 24–25 June 2005 (live) 2006
Richard Hickox BBC National Orchestra of Wales Chandos May 2006 2006
Martyn Brabbins Flemish Radio Orchestra Glossa September 2006 2007
Sir Andrew Davis Philharmonia Orchestra Decca 4 March 2007 (live) 2010
Sir Andrew Davis Philharmonia Orchestra Signum 12 April 2007 (live) 2010
Vladimir Ashkenazy Sydney Symphony Orchestra Exton 2008 2009
Vasily Petrenko Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Onyx 2010 2015
Tadaaki Otaka Sapporo Symphony Orchestra Fontec 8-11 November 2012 (live) 2013
Hilary Davan Wetton National Children's Orchestra of Great Britain Main Orchestra 2015
Daniel Barenboim Staatskapelle Berlin Decca 19 & 21 September 2015 2016
Sir Antonio Pappano Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia ICA Classics 2012 (live) 2016
Edward Gardner BBC Symphony Orchestra CHANDOS 2016 2017
Joseph Wolfe Hyogo Performing Arts Center Orchestra Livenotes 21-22 April 2017 (live) 2017
Tadaaki Otaka Osaka Philharmonic Orchestra Exton 17-18 & 22 January 2019 (live) 2019

Critical opinion

BBC Radio 3's "Building a Library" feature, a comparative review of all available recordings, has considered the symphony three times since 1982, recommending as follows:

  • 23 January 1982, reviewer, Andrew Keener:
    • London Philharmonic Orchestra, Sir Adrian Boult (1977)[6]
    • London Philharmonic Orchestra, Vernon Handley[7]
  • 23 April 1994, reviewer, Jerrold Northrop Moore:
    • BBC Philharmonic, George Hurst [8]
    • London Symphony Orchestra, Sir Edward Elgar[9]
  • 17 March 2007, reviewer, David Owen Norris:
    • Dresden Staatskapelle, Sir Colin Davis[10]

The Penguin Guide to Recorded Classical Music, 2008 edition, awarded its maximum four star rating ("a really exceptional issue on every count") to Solti's LPO set (coupled with the Second Symphony) and Barbirolli's final 1970 recording (coupled with the Introduction and Allegro). The Guide's three star rating ("an outstanding performance and recording") was given to both of the EMI recordings by Boult, and to Colin Davis (LSO Live), Hurst, Elder, and Handley.[11]

References

March, Ivan (ed). The Penguin Guide to Recorded Classical Music, Penguin Books, London, 2007. ISBN 978-0-14-103336-5

Notes
  1. Reviews The Gramophone, December 1970, p. 120
  2. Reviews, Archived 2012-08-01 at Archive.today Gramophone, December 1992, p. 92
  3. Gramophone archive
  4. Originally issued on 78 r.p.m. discs. Transferred to LP in 1953. Issued on CD (Testament) in 2001.
  5. Issued on CD (Dutton) in 2000.
  6. Boult recording "Building a Library" BBC CD Review archive, 23 January 1982
  7. Handley recording "Building a Library" BBC CD Review archive, 23 January 1982
  8. Hurst recording "Building a Library" BBC CD Review archive, 23 April 1994
  9. Composer's recording "Building a Library" BBC CD Review archive, 23 April 1994
  10. Davis recording "Building a Library" BBC CD Review archive, 17 March 2007
  11. March, pp. 431–32
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