These quite superb new recordings from the Medici Quartet and the pianist, John Bingham, have been released to mark the inauguration of Kingston University (formerly Kingston Polytechnic). These artists have recorded Elgar's String Quartet and Piano Quintet previously, and their 1986 performances on the Meridian label attracted high praise in these columns, and elsewhere. Those sessions took place in one of the larger rooms at Sutton Place, and returning to this disc once again, I can readily sympathize with MEO's comments about the excessive closeness and brilliance of the sound, especially in the case of the Quartet. But the music-making was, and still is, largely beyond reproach, and now the Medici's conviction and fervour blaze forth, if it were possible, with still greater nobility and sweep than in 1986.
The Quartet, Quintet, the Violin Sonata, and of course the Cello Concerto were all composed at Brinkwells, near Fittleworth, during 1918-19. It has become fashionable to view these late masterpieces as a public expression of the composer's revulsion and outrage in the face of conflict and the trampling down of a once great culture; but Elgar described the Quintet as ''full of old times'' rather than saturated despair. John Bingham's performance exudes a sense of enraptured eloquence in the outwardly muscular paragraphs which open the work. His drive and attack remain, certainly, but a tangible, shadowy resignation informs his playing, suggesting perhaps a radical reappraisal of intent in this work. There are deeper compensations, too, in the enigmatic outpourings of Anthony Lewis's cello threnody in the Adagio; never sentimentalized, and yet quietly voiced, with a sense of total sympathy with the composer's own inclinations. The cyclic return of material from the opening movement in the finale, a kind of hushed, anticipatory premonition, now seems to sound from a different world entirely, before leading to the outwardly confident material of the Allegro. The playing is full of virtuosic compulsion and energy, harnessed in the service of a grand and dignified conception of the Quintets total architecture. Bingham's performance is a triumphant mix of pianistic heroism and sound musical sense, and the Medicis play as if born to this music.
The Elgar Quartet has also undergone something of a re-evaluation, and the new version finds the Medicis a shade more introspective and regretful throughout the work. Their absolute confidence in the difficult passagework of the finale seems, if anything, more masterly than in 1986, whilst the quality of the recorded sound is vastly superior in every respect. The playing is thoughtfully sonorous and amply voiced, and thrives gloriously in the naturally reverberant acoustic used for the recording.
The other new disc includes the Elgar Violin Sonata, and features Richard Pasco and Barbara Leigh-Hunt in ''Wood Magic''; a nostalgic and affectionate account, told as far as possible in Elgar's own words, of the events surrounding the composition of his four final masterpieces. This moving, and frequently entertaining piece of theatre precedes the sonata, which receives a thorough, albeit occasionally rather economical performance from the Medici's first violinist, Paul Robertson, accompanied by John Bingham.'