CD: Elgar/ Walker: Piano Concerto; Songs; Collins: Elegy in Memory of Edward Elgar, Owen Norris/ BBC Singers/ BBC Concert O/ Lloyd-Jones

Robert Walker's realisation for performance of the "sketches, drafts and recordings" for Elgar's Piano Concerto parallels Anthony Payne's successful elaboration of the sketches for the same composer's Third Symphony. Walker's task has been less clear-cut, however, for the concerto that Elgar began in 1913, which had to be pieced together from a much wider ranges of sources. The themes are authentic, but what seems to have been missing (except in the slow movement, which Elgar completed in a two-piano version) is continuity, which Walker has imaginatively provided. The music sounds convincing, if not memorable; nothing in the concerto matches the striking way in which the Third Symphony opens, for instance, and the piano writing never really takes off. But Elgarians will want the disc, which is fleshed out with other Elgar orchestrations and comes with excellent documentation of Walker's sources and methods.