The Nash Ensemble - Elgar: Violin Sonata, Piano Quintet (2007) CD-Rip

The late chamber music of fin de siècle English composer Edward Elgar is as melodic and personal as any he ever wrote, but because it is also more emotionally elusive than his earlier symphonies and concertos, his chamber music is much less frequently performed and recorded. This disc by members of London's Nash Ensemble coupling the three-movement, 25-minute-long Violin Sonata in E minor with the three-movement, nearly 40-minute-long Piano Quintet in A minor is a wonderful introduction to both works. Violinist Marcia Crayford and pianist Ian Brown turn in a rapturous yet firmly controlled performance of the sonata with a central Romance that might melt even an Anglophobe's heart, and joined by violinist Elizabeth Layton, violist Roger Chase, and cellist Christopher van Kampen, Crayford and Brown create a passionately committed but still emotionally evasive performance of the quintet that may convince or it may confuse the potential listener. But these contradictions are built into the works by the composer, and the Nash Ensemble is to be commended for taking the music as it is found, and rather than attempting to hide its oddities beneath a coat of polish, instead reveals them with affectionate honesty. Recorded in lush, deep digital sound in Henry Wood Hall in London in 1992, these performances will surely please those who already know the works and may please those who don't know them yet but should.

The late chamber music of fin de siècle English composer Edward Elgar is as melodic and personal as any he ever wrote, but because it is also more emotionally elusive than his earlier symphonies and concertos, his chamber music is much less frequently performed and recorded. This disc by members of London's Nash Ensemble coupling the three-movement, 25-minute-long Violin Sonata in E minor with the three-movement, nearly 40-minute-long Piano Quintet in A minor is a wonderful introduction to both works. Violinist Marcia Crayford and pianist Ian Brown turn in a rapturous yet firmly controlled performance of the sonata with a central Romance that might melt even an Anglophobe's heart, and joined by violinist Elizabeth Layton, violist Roger Chase, and cellist Christopher van Kampen, Crayford and Brown create a passionately committed but still emotionally evasive performance of the quintet that may convince or it may confuse the potential listener. But these contradictions are built into the works by the composer, and the Nash Ensemble is to be commended for taking the music as it is found, and rather than attempting to hide its oddities beneath a coat of polish, instead reveals them with affectionate honesty. Recorded in lush, deep digital sound in Henry Wood Hall in London in 1992, these performances will surely please those who already know the works and may please those who don't know them yet but should.