ELGAR FROM AMERICA

ALL ABOUT THE ARTS

SOMM announces Elgar from America, Volume II featuring three historic performances from the 1940’s by violinist Yehudi Menuhin and conductors Malcolm Sargent and Arturo Toscanini at the helm of the NBC Symphony Orchestra.

Menuhin is heard here in a 1945 performance of Elgar’s Violin Concerto conducted by Sir Malcolm Sargent, followed by Elgar’s Cockaigne Concert-Overture.

Toscanini leads the Introduction and Allegro for Strings joined here by NBC Symphony Orchestra principal violinists Mischa Mischakoff and Edwin Bachmann, violist Carlton Cooley, and cellist Frank Miller.

Elgar’s music is that of a steadfast Romantic holdout, structurally traditional, with – to the ears of this listener – no hint of any kind of influence from whatever many other composers of his time were writing. But his gift for melody is great, and he regaled the interpreters of his compositions with accessible, often tuneful, and showy music that would inevitably elicit ovations from the listeners and reward its players for their hard work.

Menuhin delivers an impassioned performance with a remarkable full sound undoubtedly enhanced by the limpid re-mastering by audio restoration engineer Lani Spahr. The playing in the violin concerto and in the other two compositions that fill the album is sweepingly grand, boldly broad, and typical of the style that was the trademark of both the NBC Symphony Orchestra and of the 29 year old Yehudi Menuhin, a masterful violinist already at the peak of his powers.

Rafael de Acha

Published by ALL ABOUT THE ARTS

Rafael de Acha has enjoyed a distinguished career in the arts as a performer, stage director, producer, and educator. He was born and grew up in Cuba. At the age of 17 he moved to the United States to study Drama at the University of Minnesota, and later Languages at L.A. City College, Music at the Juilliard School of Music, at the University of Cincinnati’s College Conservatory of Music, and at the New England Conservatory of Music, from which he received the Master's degree. He has taught courses on the History of Music at the University of Miami’s Frost School of Music and at Florida International University, and contributed writings and reviews to Seen and Heard International (www.seenandheard-international.com ) and to this blog. He co-founded the award-winning New Theatre in Coral Gables, Florida, where he produced and staged twenty seasons of classical and contemporary theater, including fifty world premieres of plays that went on to have international and national productions on and off Broadway, including Ana in the Tropics by Nilo Cruz (Pulitzer Prize for Drama 2002 and Tony Nomination 2003.) In 2006 he was presented with a citation from The Dade County Cultural Affairs Council for “trailblazing contributions to the arts in South Florida.”