John Adams discusses Elgar and Social Networking

“Elgar was the first composer to understand the historical value of conducting and recording his own orchestral works. In his seventies, at the height of his fame, he several times went into the studio—the famous Abbey Road in one case—to record his major compositions. There is a recording of the Enigma Variations made in the late 1920’s. Any conductor today taking the piece up must listen carefully to this recording, for it reveals a kind of approach to orchestral performance that has all but disappeared in the intervening years. The string playing is full of rich, drooping portamenti, a kind of melodic slipping and sliding that listeners today only associate with corny old movie music from the silent film era. But in the context of Elgar’s music it sounds warm and deeply expressive.”