Customer Reviews

Elgar - Elgar's Enigma / Enigma Variations, Andrew Davis, BBC Symphony Orchestra

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

If there is a more quintessential British composer than Elgar, I don't know who it is. And if there is a more quintessential work by Elgar than his 'Enigma Variations' the same holds true. Here we have, with Sir Andrew Davis conducting the BBC Symphony, not only a fine performance of the work, but also a documentary about the piece itself featuring Davis who tells us much about each of the people who inspired the individual variations while wandering about the beautiful Malvern Hills, Elgar's home, the Worcester Cathedral and environs. He elucidates the nature of the relationships between Elgar and his subjects. Periodically there are appropriate short film clips from the early years of the twentieth century including some of the composer himself. There is a particularly amusing clip, skillfully synchronized with the music, featuring several dogs running and jumping into a brook and back out again, while Davis talks about Elgar's friend G. R. Sinclair's bulldog, Dan.

Separate from the documentary section, the uninterrupted performance takes place in the grand space of the Worcester Cathedral whose warm acoustic lends a lovely aural patina to the performance. One feels positively Edwardian in its sonic embrace. At the beginning of each variation there is a black-and-white photograph of the person whom the variation depicts. And, of course, for the variation entitled 'G.R.S.' (organist George Robertson Sinclair) a picture of Dan is shown.

There are tracks for each of the variations and the booklet contains a brief paragraph about each of the 'friends pictured within.' Davis touches briefly on the putative 'secret theme' mentioned by Elgar, but dismisses it as an insoluble puzzle whose solution makes little difference in the long run. Sound is in either LPCM stereo or DTS surround sound. Subtitles for the English narration of the documentary are in German, French, Italian, Spanish and English. TT 85 minutes.

A delightful DVD.

Scott Morrison

Since I teach a course in English music of the 19th and 20th centuries, this dvd came as a true boon. Andrew Davis'commentary on the "friends pictured within" and the composition of the work along with musical examples are splendid. The only negative I can come up with is the attempt to "bridge the gap" of 100 years by using actors in spots doing skits that were meant to interpret the music. This seemed an unworthy effort of a production that speaks for itself quite well. One portion of the dvd is commentary with music; the other a full performance in Elgar's Worcester Cathedral. There is also some historic footage of Elgar with his dogs. This is an absolute must for those interested in this landmark work.

One of the most interesting of Elgar's compositions is his Enigma Variations. Most of us have heard this work played and initially wondered who these people were. There is no better "essay" than Sir Andrew Davis' DVD with his hypnotic lesson by word and piano followed by his rendition with the BBC Symphony Orchestra. This is a DVD that is to be played more than once just to appreciate what Andrew Davis' lesson to each of us has been. All of us will hear the same thing but each of us will see and hear in a different context. One should be so lucky as I have been to hear Davis in an orchestral rehearsal and a voice Master Class. A truly great communicator.

We are really enjoying these DVD's that we have purchased recently. Very good quality.

I was pleasantly surprised to find this subject on a DVD as much of Elgar's work is now considered outmoded and not relevant to today's world. However, I felt that the production left a lot to be desired and a superb DVD could have been made if only someone had done a little more homework. As a player I found Mr. Davis's use of a score disturbing to say the least, it left one feeling that maybe he was not familiar with the work (not true I'm sure). Also as a player I found his conducting to be difficult to follow, I noticed that most of the string players were following the bows of their respective section leaders, rather than the conductor.
The references to the use of Nimrod (Var.9)in times of mourning and especially infering a connection to war I believe would have disturbed Elgar immensely; he made his abhorance of war well known and in my opinion would have objected in no uncertain terms to this connection. As a previous reviewer pointed out much time was wasted showing dancers and other totally unrelated scenes, of much greater interest would have been showing Elgar's favorite venues around Malvern, etc.; something that the 1962 BBC production did very well.
Personally, I found some of the tempos picked by Mr. Davis rather upsetting considering the fact that Elgar gave explicit tempo markings in his score. I as I said before, much homework should have been done before attempting to make this DVD. Nevertheless, we should be grateful in this day and age that anything of Elgar's has been put on a DVD at all. MJM.