Old Enough To Be Called Vintage ?

I guess it is a sign of age when you are surprised to see a recording from a 1976 Proms performance described as "vintage" but that is the case with this BBC Music mag cover disk. The recording in question is of Elgar Symphony No 1 by the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sir Adrian Boult. I don't have another recording of this work and this is an excellent example to have, the sound quality isn't at all in what I consider to be the vintage category and it is clear that Boult has an expert feel for this repertoire, being of an age to have been present at the premiere. I have posted before about problems I have with those works of Elgar that have been highjacked by the establishment but I am now able to appreciate much of his other music. This symphony is dominated by the long motto theme which to modern ears now sounds nostalgic of a past Edwardian age and can carry purely English connotations but careful listening shows the symphony to belong squarely in mainstream European tradition and worthy of comparison with any of Elgar's contemporaries. The disk also includes a more recent recording by the BBC Symphony of the overture In The South under Leonard Slatkin. Slatkin's tenure with the band wasn't the happiest, coinciding with a severe dip in the motivation of the orchestra and various political skirmishes not of his making, mostly around the wretched spectacle of the Last Night. He is an enthusiast of this repertoire however and the performance of this vivid tone poem fits in well with earlier recording of the symphony.