Elgar Symphony no.1 in A flat major Op.55 (1907-08)

English Symphony Orchestra (leader Zoë Beyers) / Kenneth Woods

Filmed at Worcester Cathedral, Saturday 3 June 2023

Recording, editing and video direction by Tim Burton

Reviewed by Richard Whitehouse

The revival these past four years of the Elgar Festival has provided a boost to music-making in the Midlands, with the present account of that composer’s First Symphony a reminder of the English Symphony Orchestra’s prowess right across the spectrum of symphonic writing.

It may not have had the usual number of strings to complement the triple woodwind or brass, but the resonance of Worcester Cathedral ensured any such disparity was not evident in terms of internal balance. Not least an opening movement whose motto-theme was thoughtful while never indulgent, setting the tone for a main Allegro where expressive variety was never at the expense of its formal focus. Especially felicitous was a hushed transition into the reprise, and a coda which ably distilled the equivocal mood overall as it subsided into a ruminative calm.

Kenneth Woods was mindful to invest the scherzo and its trio with a consistency of pulse so, if the former felt a little reined-in at its return, the latter unfolded with an ideal blend of poise and wistfulness. Nor was that lengthy transition into the slow movement other than seamless as a harbinger of this Adagio’s understated if undeniable profundity, Woods duly negotiating its interplay of soulful main theme and wistful asides with unerring rightness through to the artless closing bars where the music seems not so much to cease as recede beyond earshot.

If the finale represents a falling-off of inspiration, it was not apparent here. Sombre yet shot through with expectancy, its introduction launched an Allegro whose alternating incisiveness and suavity held good during an impulsive development, then a transformation of the codetta whose pathos returned for an apotheosis where the motto-theme carried all before it. Not that these closing pages felt at all bombastic or even grandiloquent in import; rather, they set the seal on a work whose affirmation is the greater for its having been so purposefully attained.

An impressive performance as must have seemed even more so in the context of this concert, not that anyone hearing it via ESO Digital is likely to feel short-changed in emotional terms. Hopefully more performances from the Elgar Festival will be made available at this platform.

This concert could be accessed free until 3 September 2024 at the English Symphony Orchestra website, but remains available through ESO Digital by way of a subscription. Meanwhile click on the names for more on the English Symphony Orchestra and Kenneth Woods

Published post no.2,305 – 19 September 2024