Elgar/Payne Symphony, Desert Island Recording please.

I have to play in a performance of the Elgar/Payne 3rd Symphony and have the opportunity to purchase the Davis BBC Symphony one or the Bournemouth one with Paul Daniel conducting. I have the read the Gramophone one and I am non the wiser as both get good reviews. Some guidance please would be appreciated. I have a feeling the Davis recording I say was the LSO, I am subject to correction on that as to whether he did record it with the LSO.

There is one by ANDREW Davis and the BBC Symphony, and one by SIR COLIN Davis and the LSO. The former is the better one, but that too is surpassed by the Daniel/Naxos.

Three recordings have been made: BBCSO / Andrew Davis, Bournemouth SO / Paul Daniel and LSO / Colin Davis. I haven't heard the Colin Davis recording and cannot comment on it. Of the other two I much prefer Paul Daniel's recording. The allegretto gains markedly from faster tempi and the finale is very much better with a sense of continuity missing from Andrew Davis's performance. Only in the first movement do I (marginally) prefer Davis. The Bournemouth strings cannot quite match the sheer weight of sound produced by the BBCSO, but that is a minor point and, in any case, the Daniel is the better recorded (Tony Faulkner was the engineer).

I thought the Naxos made a better case for this music than the Andrew Davis one (I forget the name of its label). However, I also think that the piece is only intermittently interesting.

Paul Goldstein

What a marvellous News Group this is, I have found out exactly what I wanted for which I am most grateful. I am off now to secure that Naxos disk ASAP and thank you all so much. To return the compliment, as a devoted 'Elgar Symphony lover', I do of course prefer Elgar's first two symphonys and I have a particular recording of No. 1 which I love and would like to hear what others think of it. I have never been able to find it in reviews so I am pasting its details here in case anyone can help with information about it. Its a NIXA, (no not Naxos) and the number is NIXCD 6002. Its by the Halle Orchestra conducted by Sir John Barbirolli and it completely switches off all criticism about recording quality etc. I just get carried away by the playing and the interpretation and forget anything else. The notes are by Lyndon Jenkins who is a friend of mine so I will ask him about it the next time I am talking with him, in the meantime perhaps I could have your opinion of it but I am afraid I am already prejudiced.

Careful. There are two different conductors surnamed Davis. ;

Hier steh' ich, ich kann nicht anders. Any of the three recordings will be more than satisfactory. I just had to buy all of them as they came out.

writes I am afraid I shall have to persuade the store to allow me a listen before I take the plunge.

I just listen to the first movement, rather like just listening to the Adagio from Mahlers' 10th.

Neither. It should not be played. Elgar's wishes should be respected.