CD: Elgar – Sea Pictures & Symphony No. 1

'Elgar fans should rush to buy this live recording of an LPO Festival Hall concert from 1984 ... Vernon Handley’s eloquent account of the First Symphony, restrained yet generously abandoned, is one to treasure. But the plum is Janet Baker’s Sea Pictures … Her glorious, rich contralto voice, soaring and floating, is made for this music … If you can get through "Where Corals Lie" with dry eyes, I'll gladly hand over all my other CD versions.'
Fiona Maddocks, The Guardian, 9 May 2010

'Handley's outstanding account of the First Symphony. He projects a fiercely uncompromising view of Elgar, racked and anguished in both the first and third movements, making the return of the opening march to crown the finale into a deeply ambiguous triumph.'
The Guardian, May 2010

'Janet Baker is in glorious voice in Sea Pictures.'
The Sunday Times, May 2010

'She [Janet Baker] is in rapturous voice, and the "live" dimension adds extra frisson. As for the First Symphony, Handley demonstrates his mastery at revealing myriad details while keeping a firm grasp of the work’s expansive architecture, and the LPO is on superlative form.’
Andrew Clark, The Financial Times, 26 June 2010

‘[Baker] is in peerless form and her diction remains miraculous and an example to all. Handley’s accompaniment is superb, as is his interpretation of the First Symphony in which the poetic playing of the slow movement represents the London Philharmonic Orchestra at its finest, responding wholeheartedly to Handley’s guidance.’
Michael Kennedy, The Sunday Telegraph, 1 August 2010