Elgar: In the South; Introduction and Allegro; Enigma Variations – review

Three years ago Roger Norrington outraged traditionalists by conducting the SWR Radio orchestra at the Proms in a performance of Elgar's First Symphony in which the strings used no vibrato whatsoever. These performances, a mixture of live and studio recordings from 2007 and 2010, are cut from the same austere cloth; the SWR RSO is evidently a fine orchestra, but Norrington's insistence on such a chaste string sound inevitably brings a coolness to music that demands more expressive warmth. In other respects, these performances are uncontroversial, though Norrington's self‑conscious point-making and overzealous attention to detail could prove irritating on repeated listening. They also result in odd choices of tempo: the theme of the Enigma Variations, for example, is presented with funereal slowness, while the relatively speedy approach to Nimrod, presumably adopted to strip the music of its sentimental veneer, succeeds in robbing the piece of its profundity, too. In the South needs more extrovert relish and delight in orchestral colour than this performance shows, but the Introduction and Allegro, kept on a tight rein, works better, even if the string sound seems undernourished.