"The greatest recording ever made" of Elgar's Second Symphony. "One of my Desert Island Discs choices" Rob Cowan BBC Radio 3 16 October 2005
Andrew Achenbarch writes of the Elgar Second Symphony in The Gramophone for May 2006 :
" This is a majestic rendering and arguably the most penetrating Elgar Second ever committed to disc. "
" The muscular suppleness of the performance may come as a surprise, leaving all others standing as Elgar resurrects the spirit of delight by strength of will. This could be Toscanini at his most energetic. ...Boult's 1944 performance, produced by Walter Legge in clean and well-balanced 78rpm sound, is still the one to combine the best performance of all worlds. It embraces passion and precision, lithe strength of line and an atmospheric delicacy epitomised by the way Sir Adrian guides Elgar's final vision softly and gently to its resting place. " - David Nice in Building A Library in BBC Music December 2005
"Boult knew the work intimately; Elgar countenanced his interpretation, critics celebrated it and there are five different recordings to choose from. This was the first and almost certainly the best, a judiciously shaped account, intensely voiced and with a luminosity of texture that recalls Toscanini in his heyday " The Independent, 1 March 1996
"No shortlist of great versions of Elgar's Second Symphony on disc is complete without this 1944 recording... Perhaps the most striking thing about Sir Adrian's performance is his justness of tempo throughout... This excellently remastered disc should find a place on every Elgar lover's shelves " Classic CD May 1996
