COMPOSERS: Elgar
LABELS: Classics for Pleasure
WORKS: Falstaff; Cockaigne Overture; Introduction and Allegro for Strings
PERFORMER: LPO/Vernon Handley
CATALOGUE NO: CDCFP 4617 ADD/DDD (1979/83)
I can find oddly little to recommend here. Both Falstaff and Cockaigne seem riddled with loose ends. The sound is neither attractive nor well-balanced, the strings especially unfriendly. Magical transitions are waded through in Wellington boots. Only the woodwind manages a hint of Falstaff’s subtle, incongruous wit, which needs all the art of its near-contemporary, Petrushka. The later recorded Introduction and Allegro is better; but not much.Roderic Dunnett
Elgar: Falstaff; Cockaigne Overture; Introduction and Allegro for Strings
I can find oddly little to recommend here. Both Falstaff and Cockaigne seem riddled with loose ends. The sound is neither attractive nor well-balanced, the strings especially unfriendly. Magical transitions are waded through in Wellington boots. Only the woodwind manages a hint of Falstaff’s subtle, incongruous wit, which needs all the art of its near-contemporary, Petrushka. The later recorded Introduction and Allegro is better; but not much.Roderic Dunnett
Our rating
1
Published: January 20, 2012 at 2:35 pm