BBC Music Magazine

Revealing the soul of Elgar’s Second

Stephen Johnson applauds Edward Gardner’s purposeful yet detailed account

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Elgar Symphony No. 2; Serenade for Strings

BBC Symphony Orchestra/

Edward Gardner

Chandos CHSA 5197 (hybrid CD/SACD) 66:42 mins

Elgar wrote that he had ‘written out my soul’ in the Second Symphony, and there is probably no richer and more complicate­d selfportra­it in all his output. And there’s the problem for the interprete­r: to make as much as possible speak for itself – including the riddles and contradict­ions – while keeping a sense of the Symphony as one great, unified outpouring.

Edward Gardner does this stunningly well: if anything, better even than in his fine account of the First Symphony. From the wonderful lyrical springboar­d opening right through to the final slow fade there’s a singing line that rises, falls and snakes its way through everything. Even with the start of the finale – the point when the tension often sags in performanc­e – it isn’t long before we’re back in the swing of things. The final return of the ‘Spirit of Delight’ theme is a haunting ambiguous apotheosis, at once radiant sunset and deepening darkness.

If that suggests that telling detail is sacrificed to higher purpose, the opposite is true. The solo oboe’s lonely lamentatio­n amid the funeral pomp of the Larghetto, the eerie sensual shadow-play of the first movement’s ‘malign influence’ section, the exquisite passing ‘Windflower’ phrases on the Rondo – all these linger in the memory too.

The Serenade for Strings here reminds one how much more there is to this piece than an engaging miniature. The recordings are ideally suited to Gardner’s approach: warm-toned, but clear, so that all the strands and facets in Elgar’s complex orchestral texture are clear without being brought analytical­ly forward.

The apotheosis is both radiant sunset and deepening darkness

 ??  ?? A stunning triumph: Gardner tops even his Elgar First Hear extracts from this recording and the rest of this month’s choices on the website at www.classical-music.com BBC Music Magazine
A stunning triumph: Gardner tops even his Elgar First Hear extracts from this recording and the rest of this month’s choices on the website at www.classical-music.com BBC Music Magazine
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