Does The Composer Always Know Best ?

This recording comes from EMI's Great Recordings of the century series and that would certainly apply to one of the two featured recordings. The other is much more debateable. The disk is of music by Elgar conducted by the composer himself. That very fact of course means that the recordings are of an elderly vintage but the six years seperating them make a world of difference in terms of sound quality. The performance on the latter recording is on an entirely different plane too. That is of the Violin Concerto and is by a young Yehudi Menuhin with the London Symphony Orchestra. The concerto is a full blooded late romantic work, more in the Austro-German tradition than in any pastoral English vein. Menuhin plays with bags of heart and committment and much vibrato that the composer must obviously have approved of. After all these years still a very recommendable version of the work which reminds me that the one significant Elgar gap in my collection that I wish to fill is the Cello Concerto. Do I go for the famous and perennially available Du Pre or a more contemporary sound ? A decision for another time. The other work on the disk is a 1926 recording of the Enigma Variations with Elgar conducting the Royal Albert Hall Orchestra and is much less satisfactory. Apart from poor sound quality, Elgar's tempos are extremely erratic, most notably in Nimrod where they are all over the place. The composer's intentions or an elderly gentleman leading a less than top rate orchestra ? Whichever is the case, for my own tastes I am glad of a BBC cover disk repertoire duplication in this instance which gives me a presentable modern alternative.