Enigma Variations discography

Edward Elgar's Enigma Variations has received more than sixty recordings since the first version, recorded under the baton of the composer in 1924. The first two recordings were made by the old acoustic process. Following the introduction of the microphone and electrical recording in 1925, Elgar re-recorded the work, taking advantage of the greatly increased realism of the new process. New recordings of the Variations were later made following the introduction of the long playing record in the early 1950s, and after the introduction of stereophonic recording towards the end of the decade. Details of the recordings, below, are taken from The Gramophone.

Conductor	Orchestra	Label	Date
The composer	untitled	HMV	1924
Sir Henry Wood	New Queen's Hall	Columbia	1925
The composer	Royal Albert Hall	HMV	1927
Sir Hamilton Harty	Hallé	Columbia	1932
Arturo Toscanini	BBC Symphony	HMV	1935
Sir Henry Wood	Queen's Hall	Decca	1936
Sir Adrian Boult	BBC Symphony	HMV	1936
Malcolm Sargent	National Symphony	Decca	1945
John Barbirolli	Hallé	HMV	1948
Walter Goehr	Concert Hall Symphony	Nixa	1953
Sir Malcolm Sargent	London Symphony	Decca	1953
Sir Adrian Boult	London Philharmonic	HMV	1953
George Weldon	Philharmonia	Columbia	1954
Arturo Toscanini	NBC Symphony	RCA	1954
Sir Thomas Beecham	Royal Philharmonic	Philips	1955
Sir John Barbirolli	Hallé	Pye	1957
William Steinberg	Pittsburgh Symphony	Capitol Records	1957
Sir Malcolm Sargent	Philharmonia	HMV	1960
Pierre Monteux	London Symphony	RCA	1961
Sir Adrian Boult	London Philharmonic	World Record Club	1961
Pierre Monteux	London Symphony	BBC	1962
Sir John Barbirolli	Philharmonia	HMV	1963
Colin Davis	London Symphony	Philips	1965
Sir Malcolm Sargent	BBC Symphony	BBC	1966
Constantin Silvestri	Bournemouth Symphony	BBC	1967
Sir Adrian Boult	London Symphony	HMV	1970
Leopold Stokowski	Czech Philharmonic Orchestra	Decca	1972
Eugene Ormandy	Philadelphia	CBS	1972
Zubin Mehta	Los Angeles Philharmonic	Decca	1973
Norman Del Mar	Royal Philharmonic	Contour	1975
Eugen Jochum	London Symphony	DG	1975
Andrew Davis	New Philharmonia	Lyrita	1975
Bernard Haitink	London Philharmonic	Philips	1975
Sir Georg Solti	Chicago Symphony	Decca	1976
Daniel Barenboim	London Philharmonic	CBS	1976
Sir Charles Groves	Royal Liverpool Philharmonic	HMV	1978
Neville Marriner	Concertgebouw	Philips	1979
Sir Alexander Gibson	Scottish National	RCA	1979
Andrew Davis	Philharmonia	CBS	1983
Vernon Handley	London Philharmonic	EMI	1983
Leonard Bernstein	BBC Symphony	DG	1984
Sir Charles Mackerras	London Philharmonic	HMV	1986
Yehudi Menuhin	Royal Philharmonic	Philips	1986
André Previn	Royal Philharmonic	Philips	1987
Andrew Litton	Royal Philharmonic	Virgin	1988
Barry Tuckwell	London Symphony	Pickwick	1989
Hilary Davan Wetton	London Philharmonic	Collins	1989
Bryden Thomson	London Philharmonic	Chandos	1989
William Boughton	English Symphony	Nimbus	1989
Leonard Slatkin	London Philharmonic	RCA	1989
Giuseppe Sinopoli	Philharmonia	DG	1989
David Zinman	Baltimore Symphony	Telarc	1989
Sir Edward Downes	BBC Philharmonic	Conifer	1991
Andrew Davis	BBC Symphony	Teldec	1991
Charles Dutoit	Montreal Symphony	Decca	1991
Sir Simon Rattle	City of Birmingham Symphony	EMI	1992
James Levine	Berlin Philharmonic	Sony	1992
Sir Neville Marriner	Academy of St Martin in the Fields	Capriccio	1993
Christopher Seaman	National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain	Classics	1993
Rolf Kleinert	Berlin Radio Symphony	Berlin Classics	1996
Sir Georg Solti	Vienna Philharmonic	Decca	1997
Adrian Leaper	Czecho-Slovak Radio Symphony	Naxos	1997
George Hurst	Bournemouth Symphony	Naxos	1998
Stanisław Skrowaczewski	Saarbrücken Radio Symphony	Arte Nova	1998
Paul Daniel	London Philharmonic	Classic FM	1999
Sir John Eliot Gardiner	Vienna Philharmonic	DG	2002
Sir Mark Elder	Hallé	Hallé	2003
Sakari Oramo	City of Birmingham Symphony	CBSO	2007
Sir Colin Davis	London Symphony	LSO Live	2007
Vladimir Ashkenazy	Sydney Symphony	Exton	2008
Sir Simon Rattle	Berliner Philharmoniker	EMI	2012
Andrew Constantine	BBC National Orchestra of Wales	Orchid Classics	2017
David Bernard	Park Avenue Chamber Symphony	Recursive Classics	2022

Notes

The Gramophone magazine
live recording, issued 2006
live recording, issued 2009
"Elgar: Enigma Variations; in the South - Vladimir Ashkenazy, Sydney Symphony Orchestra | Songs, Reviews, Credits | AllMusic". AllMusic.
"Enigma Variations: Overture in the South". Amazon.
"Elgar: Enigma Variations / Rattle · Berliner Philharmoniker". YouTube.
http://www.digitalconcerthall.com/en/concert/play/2519-4

v t e Edward Elgar
List of compositions
Incidental	Diarmuid and Grania (1901) The Crown of India (1911–12) The Starlight Express (1915–16) The Sanguine Fan (1917)
Symphonies	Symphony No. 1 (1907–08) Symphony No. 2 (1909–11) Symphony No. 3 (1932–34; completed by Payne in 1997)
Orchestral	The Wand of Youth (1869–1907) Powick Asylum Music (1879–1884) Sevillana (1884) Froissart (1890) Sursum corda (1894) Serenade for Strings (1894) Three Bavarian Dances (1898) Enigma Variations (1899) Cockaigne Overture (1900–01) Pomp and Circumstance Marches (1901–30) Dream Children (1902) Introduction and Allegro (1904–05) In the South (Alassio) (1904–05) Elegy (1909) Falstaff (1913) Sospiri (1914) Carillon (1914) Polonia (1915) Une voix dans le désert (1915) Le drapeau belge (1917) Nursery Suite (1930) The Severn Suite (1930)
Concertante	Violin Concerto (1901–10) Romance (1910) Cello Concerto (1918–19)
Chamber	Duett for trombone and double bass (1887) Idylle (1883) Salut d'Amour (1888) Chanson de Nuit (1897) Chanson de Matin (1899) Violin Sonata (1918) String Quartet (1918) Piano Quintet (1918–19)
Keyboard	Organ Sonata (1898) Concert Allegro (1901)
Choral	The Black Knight (1889–93) From the Bavarian Highlands (1895–96) The Dream of Gerontius (1899–1900) The Kingdom (1901–06) Coronation Ode (1902) The Apostles (1902–03) The Music Makers (1912) The Spirit of England (1915–17)
Vocal	"The Language of Flowers" (1872) "The Self Banished" (1875) "A War Song" (1884) Seven Lieder "Like to the Damask Rose" (1892) "Queen Mary's Song" (1889) "A Song of Autumn" (1892) "The Poet's Life" (1892) "Through the Long Days" (1885) "Rondel" (1894) "The Shepherd's Song" (1892) "Is she not passing fair?" (1886) "As I laye a-thynkynge" (1888) "The Wind at Dawn" (1888) "After" (1900) "A Song of Flight" (1900) Sea Pictures "Sea Slumber Song" "In Haven" "Sabbath Morning at Sea" "Where Corals Lie" "The Swimmer" (1897–99) "Dry those fair, those crystal eyes" (1899) "Always and Everywhere" (1901) "Come, Gentle Night!" (1901) "In the Dawn" (1901) "Speak, Music!" (1901) "There are seven that pull the thread" (1901) "In Moonlight" ((1904) "Follow the Colours" (1907) "Pleading" (1908) "A Child Asleep" (1909) "Oh, soft was the song" (1910) "Was it some Golden Star?" (1910) "Twilight" (1910) "The Chariots of the Lord" (1914) "Fight for Right" (1916) "Inside the Bar" (1917) "The Blue Mountains" (1924) "The Immortal Legions" (1924) Pageant of Empire (1924) "XTC" (1930)
Other topics	Dorabella Cipher Elgar Birthplace Museum The Elgar Sisters Elgar Society Elgar Uplands Elgar (film)
Family	August Jaeger Alice Elgar
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