Search - Elgar, Robert Gibbs, David Owen Norris :: Sketches for Sym #3 / Commentary By Anthony Payne

In the tradition and style of Elgar.

unkawu | Washington, DC USA | 06/17/1999

(5 out of 5 stars)

"A must for every fan and student of Elgar.Anthony Payne finalized the draft by Elgar; but, the music and the underlying power of Symphony III is pure Elgar. There is a feeling of renewal and vigor that marks all of Elgar's works (even Sym II). For those who came in late, Elgar died in 1933 leaving an almost complete set of notes for Sym III. Payne pulled these together while adding little, if any, color to the original score. While the final part takes an unexpected turn, this is also in keeping with music Elgar wrote in his last years. From there the performance by Davis and the BBC Symphony Orchestra interperts the work in a very straight forward manner. I feel that any varriation that Payne may have introduced is far less than any conductor would introduce in scoring it for presentation.In my view it is as strong and as vital a piece of music as the first two symphonies are. I thank Payne and Davis for allowing me to hear this remarkable piece of music after it was locked away for over 60 years."

Factual corrections...

sphaerenklang | UK | 10/02/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Just for the record, in fact the proportion of the actual notes in the score of this music that were written by Elgar is quite small. Elgar wrote all but one of the main themes, but they occupy a relatively small proportion of the music. Most of the time is taken up with developing, repeating and "elaborating" the themes, and the great majority of this work is Payne's, not to mention most of the orchestration. Payne also imported some ideas that Elgar had used in a previous work. As many people have noticed, it is extremely difficult when just listening to the "elaboration" to tell which is which, due to Payne's great skill as an imitator of Elgar's style of writing. On this CD, it is at least possible to sort out the two, since the sketches actually by Elgar are presented separately. It is easy to sit back and let the music wash over you, since the imitation is mostly so well-done that it is hard to believe that Elgar did not write it all out himself. But don't forget that Elgar's own ideas for completing the symphony were quite different and could not be deduced by analogy with his previous works..."