Acoustic marvels
With picture Beatrice recording Concerto regards of Harrison in Elgar the your to Cello and the September would they issue, really have used acoustic horns in 1928? And doesn’t Elgar look a few years younger than you would think? I wondered if it was, in fact, the earlier acoustic recording from November 1920? For those who haven’t heard it, that acoustic recording is well worth a listen, despite its cuts. There is a sadness, beauty and authority to it, given the involvement of Elgar and Harrison and the players’ response to their music-making. There is also the added poignancy that it is a recording made only two years after the end of the war, and seven months after Lady Elgar’s death, and this poignancy is evident, despite the acoustic process. I often play the acoustic recording first, and then follow up
by listening to the electric recording. We stand to
miss a lot of the beauty of classical music if we take
it for granted that, when
it comes to recordings, latest is always best. Peter Caffrey, Dublin, Ireland
The editor replies: You
(and other readers) are right to point out the error in the September issue picture caption. The photo is, as you say, of the 1920 recording, not the later one.