Elgar: Cello Concerto; "Enigma" Variations

All good- Elgar the way it should be played.

All good. Elgar the way it should be played- plenty of emotion. Late romanticism should be played from the heart- almost to the extreme of 'haming it up'. The tears will roll, the joy of laughter is obvious- its fantastic. I wish today's performers were brave enough to let their hair down sufficiently when playing music from this era. October 9, 2007

A word about DuPre and the 'Elgar'

Why has one piece of music here, the Elgar Cello Concerto played by Jacqueline DuPre become so legendary?
Of course it is the music itself. It has an overpowerful haunting deeply hypnotic feeling. Elgar wrote it after his recovery from a serious illness towards the end of the First War, and his thoughts were certainly on the suffering of life, and the inevitability of death.
DuPre brings to the piece not only her great mastery as cellist, but some deeper element of feeling. There is in the playing a sense of romantic abandoment of wild disturbance , and of intense and even ferious concentration. She seems to be Orpheus- like overtaken by the music and it seems to be playing through her whole body. It is almost as if too in the playing there is a sense of the illness which will later come to her, and which ironically, paradoxically painfully will deprive her of the feeling in her fingers and hands.
She seems swept up by the music and yet all the while moving it to deeper and deeper levels of sorrow, pain and beauty.
Music like this comes from the angels only. July 30, 2007

I really feel it's inappropriate...

...for me to review this recording. These are for me at least two special works. The Elgar Cello Concerto has been described as "the final epitaph to the romantic movement" and I wouldn't disagree with that. Who could know that one of very young performers of this piece, Jacqueline du Pré, was herself to fall victim to a crippling disease not long after this recording? EVERYTHING about this recording is superb. It's hardly surprising that few today will dare to rerecord it. I don't want to say more.
The "Enigma" variations, as the name suggests. have remained a mystery ever since they were composed. The style is Brahms, no question, but the tone is well, mysteriously light. If has often been suggested, this sublime Theme and Variations is a portrait of Elgar's friends and lovers, then it is surely unique in music and will go on being listened to for ever. Wonderful performance, a perfect record. June 29, 2007

Buy it for the Cello Concerto, forget the rest

The Elgar Cello Concerto is performed wonderfully here--just magic. The legendary team of Barenboim and Du Pre plus her famous way with this piece are known to all classical music lovers.

Barenboim alone as a conductor is another matter. I've never cared for his willful, sometimes even goofy performances, and the other Elgar pieces he conducts on this disc show him to be at his irritating worst. If you want to hear inspired, noble performances of the Pomp & Circumstance Marches and the Enigma Variations buy Adrian Boult's versions with the London Symphony and London Philharmonic Orchestras on EMI/Seraphim. May 5, 2007

Magnificent.

This recording of the Elgar is absolutely wonderful... it's breathtaking, poignant, playful, and altogether fabulous. I only wish I had been around to see the DuPre/Barenboim magic live... March 16, 2007

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