My favourite version of Elgar's Enigma Variations, and another disc i played early last year [12th January 2011], Elgar's short little vignettes of his friends really hits home with his ingenious theme, Elgar seems to visit every possibility of throwing this original theme around, and creates a delightful 14 visual pictures, it's easy to have your favourites [Nimrod for most people], but the trick of really listening to music is to find new things to hear in the most unexpected places.
Yehudi Menuhin is American i guess, but lived here for the last part of his life, it almost seems that he's British by birth, he was born in 1916, and dies in 1999, he made this recording in 1985, the front cover photograph is superb [by Richard Holt], a picture of a bust of Elgar himself, with Menuhin and Lloyd Webber either side, wood panelling in the background, with a lovely use of light to show the woodwork contours, i just love the symmetry of it all, a great pic.
One after another, i just loved these variations, especially the Theme, 1, 4, 7, 9-11 & 13-14, it'a hard to pick a winner, variations have a great tendency to build on each other, therefore the previous variation anticipates the next, and you're forever stuck in a wonderful present, while enjoying the glow of the variation before, and the next variation that is appearing on the horizon, i guess i just loved the opening variation, that of Elgar's Wife,
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