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The particular nature of Elgar’s orchestral output means that it come on CD in all sorts of couplings. It would not be all that easy to assemble a complete series of the major works in good performances without several duplications on the way. Since the music lends itself to a wide number of interpretative stances, perhaps this is all to the good. However, anyone starting a collection who bought, on my recommendation, the 2-CD set of Boult’s performances of the symphonies and a few other works may be encouraged to know that the present issue doesn’t duplicate anything at all and also offers a quite different angle on the music. If you’re after basic Elgar you’ll still need, as far as the orchestral side goes, Falstaff, the Violin Concerto and Cockaigne.

It is possible, of course, that EMI will gradually bring out the rest of their Boult/Elgar recordings. Since I have all the present works under Boult in LP or CD format – except “The Starlight Express” which he didn’t record – I’ll make him my point of reference.