This is the second Elgar 2 that I have reviewed in so many weeks and I can safely say that it is one of the best available. Mark Elder has a knack for Elgar's wide ranging and expansive style and the Hallé are obviously past masters in this repertoire.
The accompanying 'Introduction and Allegro' is also very well played and recorded, actually I enjoyed this version much more than recent forays on other more obscure labels who never really plumb the depths of this rather enigmatic work.
Notes and recording are amongst the best around, as we have now become accustomed in this Hallé series. An unqualified recommendation then and I eagerly await further issues in this outstanding Elgar series, a new 'Dream of Gerontius' perhaps?
Copyright © 2005, Gerald Fenech