Elgar Violin Concerto discography

Edward Elgar's Violin Concerto was first recorded complete in 1929. Truncated versions had been recorded in 1916 using the acoustic recording process, the technical limitations of which necessitated drastic rearrangement of the score. Electrical recording, introduced in the 1920s, gave a greatly improved dynamic range and realism, and the two leading English record companies, Columbia and His Master's Voice (HMV) both made recordings of the concerto that remain in the catalogue. The first was made for Columbia by Albert Sammons with the New Queen's Hall Orchestra conducted by Sir Henry Wood. Elgar's own recording with the young Yehudi Menuhin followed three years later. Since then there have been more than twenty-five further recordings, featuring British and international performers.

Recordings by date

Soloist	Orchestra	Conductor	Label	Date
Albert Sammons	unnamed	Sir Henry Wood	Columbia	1916
Marie Hall	unnamed	Sir Edward Elgar	HMV	1916
Albert Sammons	New Queen's Hall Orchestra	Sir Henry Wood	Columbia	1929
Yehudi Menuhin	London Symphony Orchestra	Sir Edward Elgar	HMV	1932
Jascha Heifetz	London Symphony Orchestra	Sir Malcolm Sargent	HMV	1949
Alfredo Campoli	London Philharmonic Orchestra	Sir Adrian Boult	Decca	1954
Yehudi Menuhin	New Philharmonia Orchestra	Sir Adrian Boult	EMI	1966
Aldo Ferraresi	Orchestra Sinfonica RAI Milano	Pietro Argento	RAI	1966
Yehudi Menuhin	London Philharmonic Orchestra	Sir Adrian Boult	BBC	1969
Hugh Bean	Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra	Charles Groves	EMI	1972
Pinchas Zukerman	London Philharmonic Orchestra	Daniel Barenboim	CBS	1976
Kyung-Wha Chung	London Philharmonic Orchestra	Sir Georg Solti	Decca	1977
Ida Haendel	London Philharmonic Orchestra	Sir Adrian Boult	EMI	1978
Itzhak Perlman	Chicago Symphony Orchestra	Daniel Barenboim	EMI	1981
Igor Oistrakh	Moscow State Symphony Orchestra	Valentin Zhuk	Olympia	1984
Nigel Kennedy	London Philharmonic Orchestra	Vernon Handley	EMI	1984
Ida Haendel	BBC Symphony Orchestra	Sir John Pritchard	BBC	1986
Dmitry Sitkovetsky	Royal Philharmonic Orchestra	Sir Yehudi Menuhin	Virgin	1990
Dong-Suk Kang	Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra	Adrian Leaper	Naxos	1991
Salvatore Accardo	London Symphony Orchestra	Richard Hickox	Collins Classics	1991
Pinchas Zukerman	St. Louis Symphony Orchestra	Leonard Slatkin	RCA	1992
Kyoko Takezawa	Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra	Sir Colin Davis	RCA	1993
Leland Chen	Arnhem Philharmonic Orchestra	Lord Menuhin	Upbeat	1994
Nigel Kennedy	City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra	Sir Simon Rattle	EMI	1997
Hilary Hahn	London Symphony Orchestra	Sir Colin Davis	DG	2004
Philippe Graffin	Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra	Vernon Handley	Avie	2006
James Ehnes	Philharmonia Orchestra	Sir Andrew Davis	Onyx	2007
Gil Shaham	Chicago Symphony Orchestra	David Zinman	Canary	2008
Nikolaj Znaider	Dresden Staatskapelle	Sir Colin Davis	RCA	2010
Thomas Zehetmair	Hallé Orchestra	Sir Mark Elder	Hallé	2010
Tasmin Little	Royal Scottish National Orchestra	Sir Andrew Davis	Chandos	2010

Critical opinion

The BBC Radio 3 feature "Building a Library" has presented comparative reviews of all available versions of the concerto on three occasions, and recommended as follows:

15 October 1994, reviewer, Michael Kennedy:
- Kyoko Takezawa, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Sir Colin Davis^[1]
- Yehudi Menuhin, London Symphony Orchestra, Sir Edward Elgar^[2]
10 July 1999, reviewer, Iain Burnside:
- Albert Sammons, New Queen's Hall Orchestra, Sir Henry Wood^[3]
- Pinchas Zukerman London Philharmonic Orchestra, Daniel Barenboim^[4]
14 January 2012, reviewer, Martin Cotton:
- Yehudi Menuhin, London Symphony Orchestra, Sir Edward Elgar
- Thomas Zehetmair, Hallé Orchestra, Sir Mark Elder^[5]

The Penguin Guide to Recorded Classical Music, 2008, gave its maximum four star rating to none of the recordings of the concerto. It awarded three stars (representing "an outstanding performance and recording") to the recordings by Graffin, Heifetz, Kang, Kennedy (1984 and 1997), Menuhin (1932 and 1966), and Sammons (1929).^[6]

Notes

↑ Takezawa "Building a Library" BBC Radio 3, accessed 24 October 2010
↑ Menuhin "Building a Library" BBC Radio 3, accessed 24 October 2010
↑ Sammons "Building a Library" BBC Radio 3, accessed 24 October 2010
↑ Zukerman "Building a Library" BBC Radio 3, accessed 24 October 2010
↑ "Elgar Violin Concerto" BBC podcast, 14 January 2012
↑ March, pp. 425–28

References

March, Ivan (ed). The Penguin Guide to Recorded Classical Music, Penguin Books, London, 2007. ISBN 978-0-14-103336-5

Edward Elgar

Incidental music and ballet	Diarmuid and Grania (1901) The Crown of India (1911–12) The Starlight Express (1915–16) The Sanguine Fan (1917)

Orchestral	The Wand of Youth (1869–1907) Powick Asylum Music (1879–1884) Sevillana (1884) Froissart (1890) Sursum corda (1894) Serenade for Strings (1894) Three Bavarian Dances (1898) Enigma Variations (1899) Cockaigne Ouverture (1900–01) Pomp and Circumstance Marches (1901–30) Dream Children (1902) Introduction and Allegro (1904–05) In the South (Alassio) (1904–05) Symphony No. 1 (1907–08) Symphony No. 2 (1909–11) Falstaff (1913) Sospiri (1914) Carillon (1914) Polonia (1915) Une voix dans le désert (1915) Le drapeau belge (1917) Nursery Suite (1930) The Severn Suite (1930) Symphony No. 3 (1932–34)

Concertante	Violin Concerto (1901–10) Romance (1910) Cello Concerto (1918–19)

Chamber/Instrumental	Duett for trombone and double bass (1887) Idylle (1883) Salut d'Amour (1888) Chanson de Nuit (1897) Chanson de Matin (1899) Organ Sonata (1898) Concert Allegro (1901) Violin Sonata (1918) String Quartet (1918) Piano Quintet (1918–19)

Vocal/Choral Orchestral	The Black Knight (1889–93) From the Bavarian Highlands (1895–96) The Dream of Gerontius (1899–1900) The Kingdom (1901–06) Coronation Ode (1902) The Apostles (1902–03) The Music Makers (1912) The Spirit of England (1915–17)

Vocal	"The Language of Flowers" (1872) "The Self Banished" (1875) "A War Song" (1884) Seven Lieder of Edward Elgar – "Like to the Damask Rose" (1892), "Queen Mary's Song" (1889), "A Song of Autumn" (1892), "The Poet's Life" (1892), "Through the Long Days" (1885), "Rondel" (1894), "The Shepherd's Song" (1892), "Is she not passing fair?" (1886) "As I laye a-thynkynge" (1888) "The Wind at Dawn" (1888) "The Shepherd's Song" (1892) "After" (1900) "A Song of Flight" (1900) Sea Pictures – "Sea Slumber Song", "In Haven", "Sabbath Morning at Sea", "Where Corals Lie" and "The Swimmer" (1897–99) "Dry those fair, those crystal eyes" (1899) "Always and Everywhere" (1901) "Come, Gentle Night!" (1901) "In the Dawn" (1901) "Speak, Music!" (1901) "There are seven that pull the thread" (1901) "In Moonlight" ((1904) "Follow the Colours" (1907) "Pleading" (1908) "A Child Asleep" (1909) "Oh, soft was the song" (1910) "Was it some Golden Star?" (1910) "Twilight" (1910) "The Chariots of the Lord" (1914) "Fight for Right" (1916) "Inside the Bar" (1917) "The Blue Mountains" (1924) "The Immortal Legions" (1924) Pageant of Empire (1924) "XTC" (1930)

Discography	Symphony No. 1 Symphony No. 2 Violin Concerto Cello Concerto The Dream of Gerontius Enigma Variations

Named for Elgar	Elgar Birthplace Museum The Elgar Sisters Elgar Society Elgar Uplands

Cultural depictions	Elgar (film)

Family	August Jaeger Caroline Alice Elgar

Related articles	Edward Elgar Publishing Jerrold Northrop Moore

List of compositions by Edward Elgar Category:Edward Elgar

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