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Reviewed by:
  • Enigma Variations by Edward Elgar
  • Roderick L. Sharpe
Edward Elgar. Enigma Variations. DVD. Leonard Bernstein / BBC Symphony Orchestra. Directed by Peter Butler and Humphrey Burton. [London]: ICA Classics, 2013. ICAD 5098. $24.99.

Among the many and various recorded performances of the Enigma Variations, this one, taken from a televised 1982 performance from London’s Royal Festival Hall, will always seem an oddity. We do not think of Bernstein as an Elgarian; he played very little of the composer’s music. True, he had played these variations with the New York Philharmonic in the 1960s, along with the Cockaigne Overture, and he recorded several of the marches as fillers on the companion studio recording to this Royal Festival Hall performance. He certainly didn’t take to the Englishman’s music in the way some other non-British conductors among his contemporaries did (Solti, Barenboim, and Sinopoli, for instance). At the same time, Bernstein’s performances during the 1980’s became increasingly idiosyncratic, especially regarding the exaggerated tempi and phrasing heard here. (Another example of this is his recording of Dvorak’s New World Symphony where the second movement is drawn out to an incredible 18’ 22” – the average being about 13 minutes!) Largely as a result of the chosen tempi, adjectives such as “infamous,” “eccentric,” “indulgent,” “perverse,” and “exasperating” have been variously applied by critics to the CD version of this work.

In an objective appraisal of this performance, especially as regards to tempo, one must refer to the metronome marks Elgar applied to the score, and here Bernstein often deviates wildly - and particularly so in the Theme and “Nimrod.” Elgar’s own recording, made in 1926, which must count as a benchmark, by no means keeps to his own tempo markings. Since the dawn of recording, there are frequently discrepancies between what composer-conductors write and what they actually do in performance, and there are understandable reasons for this. The practicality of performance may influence composers to modify what they originally imagined. Bernstein, of course, was also a composer of considerable merit and is surely allowed a certain amount of license in performing the works of others. But here one wonders whether the extreme interpretative choices are egotistic rather than artistic, and that is what both the rehearsal and performance give us the opportunity to assess. Being so self-absorbed might also be being disrespectful. And yet his performance cannot be simply discounted, because Bernstein was a brilliant musician and there are passages that simply take one’s breath away.

As the informative booklet notes supplied by Humphrey Burton indicate, this was very much a one-off affair; the only time Bernstein appeared with this orchestra. Consequently, the rehearsal footage is very revealing. Apparently, Bernstein was seriously late arriving for the first rehearsal (having gotten caught up in traffic) and without apology, brushes aside the concert-master’s intention of introducing him. The booklet tells us that he then proceeded to launch into a lengthy diatribe about his affinity with Elgar – especially the fact that they both enjoyed puzzles and anagrams (mercifully edited out of the video). So you have a situation where the orchestra is already irritated by having to sit around, and one senses some restlessness among the players. Bernstein cajoles and encourages them into the approach he wants (“You can do it!” he urges), but some tense moments break out as when the trumpet section is trying to fathom what he’s asking of them – although perhaps not trying hard enough to do so! We also view concertmaster Rodney Friend’s incredulity at the tempo Bernstein is asking for in Variation XI - too fast! We are given excerpts rehearsing the theme and five of the variations. A complete run-through of “Nimrod” extends to 5’ 15” (Elgar takes 2’ 52”) - and yet, on its own terms, there is something beguiling in [End Page 145] this somewhat impressionistic and soporific interpretation devoid of the religiosity that usually characterizes it. During a rehearsal intermission (which Bernstein wickedly characterizes as a “Tea Break”) we are given a brief interview where he comments on various theories that attempt to explain the “enigma” of the work’s title. Apart...

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