The
Nationaltheater-Orchester Mannheim
is one of the oldest in all of Europe, but it has not been terribly often recorded. That seems to be changing under imported conductor
Alexander Soddy
, who keeps the group under control in repertory that may not be familiar to it. Consider this recording of
Elgar
's
Symphony No. 1 in A flat major, Op. 55
, recorded live by
Oehms Classics
and released in 2024.
Soddy
forges a distinctive reading, not so much fast (it is actually about average among recordings of the work) as urgent. The slow movement here has a jolly tunefulness that may bring to mind one of the work's few negative reviews when it first appeared ("cheap ready-made material," sniffed The Observer), but it works nicely here. There is a lot of energy in the Allegro sections, and the
Mannheimers
keep up with what is demanded of them. Best of all, perhaps, is the opening
Cockaigne Overture, Op. 40
, a wonderfully colorful portrait of London in this reading. There isn't a hint anywhere on the album of the ponderousness that can sometimes afflict
performances, and while this isn't quite a typical
recording, it is one that anyone may enjoy. The
Oehms
label's live recording talents prove to be equal to its studio wizardry. ~ James Manheim