# Elgar Violin Concerto discography

Edward Elgar's Violin Concerto was first recorded complete in 1929. Truncated versions had been recorded in 1916 using the acoustic recording process, the technical limitations of which necessitated drastic rearrangement of the score. Electrical recording, introduced in the 1920s, gave a greatly improved dynamic range and realism, and the two leading English record companies, Columbia and His Master's Voice both made recordings of the concerto that remain in the catalogue. The first was made for Columbia by Albert Sammons with the New Queen's Hall Orchestra conducted by Sir Henry Wood. Elgar's own recording with the young Yehudi Menuhin followed three years later. Since then there have been more than twenty-five further recordings, featuring British and international performers.

## Recordings by date

| Soloist | Orchestra | Conductor | Label | Date |
| Albert Sammons | unnamed | Sir Henry Wood | Columbia | 1916 |
| Marie Hall | unnamed | Sir Edward Elgar | His Master's Voice | 1916 |
| Albert Sammons | New Queen's Hall Orchestra | Sir Henry Wood | Columbia | 1929 |
| Yehudi Menuhin | London Symphony Orchestra | Sir Edward Elgar | His Master's Voice | 1932 |
| Jascha Heifetz | London Symphony Orchestra | Sir Malcolm Sargent | His Master's Voice | 1949 |
| Alfredo Campoli | London Philharmonic Orchestra | Sir Adrian Boult | Decca | 1954 |
| Yehudi Menuhin | New Philharmonia Orchestra | Sir Adrian Boult | EMI | 1966 |
| Aldo Ferraresi | Orchestra Sinfonica RAI Milano | Pietro Argento | Rhine Classics | 1966 |
| Gidon Kremer | Belgian National Orchestra | René Defossez | Discothèque Nationale de Belgique | 1967 |
| Yehudi Menuhin | London Philharmonic Orchestra | Sir Adrian Boult | BBC | 1969 |
| Hugh Bean | Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra | Charles Groves | EMI | 1972 |
| Pinchas Zukerman | London Philharmonic Orchestra | Daniel Barenboim | CBS | 1976 |
| Kyung-Wha Chung | London Philharmonic Orchestra | Sir Georg Solti | Decca | 1977 |
| Ida Haendel | London Philharmonic Orchestra | Sir Adrian Boult | EMI | 1978 |
| Itzhak Perlman | Chicago Symphony Orchestra | Daniel Barenboim | DG | 1981 |
| Igor Oistrakh | Moscow State Symphony Orchestra | Valentin Zhuk | Olympia | 1984 |
| Nigel Kennedy | London Philharmonic Orchestra | Vernon Handley | EMI | 1984 |
| Ida Haendel | BBC Symphony Orchestra | Sir John Pritchard | BBC | 1986 |
| Dmitry Sitkovetsky | Royal Philharmonic Orchestra | Sir Yehudi Menuhin | Virgin | 1990 |
| Dong-Suk Kang | Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra | Adrian Leaper | Naxos | 1991 |
| Salvatore Accardo | London Symphony Orchestra | Richard Hickox | Collins Classics | 1991 |
| Pinchas Zukerman | St. Louis Symphony Orchestra | Leonard Slatkin | RCA | 1992 |
| Kyoko Takezawa | Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra | Sir Colin Davis | RCA | 1993 |
| Leland Chen | Arnhem Philharmonic Orchestra | Lord Menuhin | Upbeat | 1994 |
| Nigel Kennedy | City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra | Sir Simon Rattle | EMI | 1997 |
| Ilya Grubert | Moscow Symphony Orchestra | Vladimir Ziva | Vista Vera | 2003 |
| Hilary Hahn | London Symphony Orchestra | Sir Colin Davis | DG | 2004 |
| Philippe Graffin | Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra | Vernon Handley | Avie | 2006 |
| James Ehnes | Philharmonia Orchestra | Sir Andrew Davis | Onyx | 2007 |
| Gil Shaham | Chicago Symphony Orchestra | David Zinman | Canary | 2008 |
| Nikolaj Znaider | Dresden Staatskapelle | Sir Colin Davis | RCA | 2010 |
| Thomas Zehetmair | Hallé Orchestra | Sir Mark Elder | Hallé | 2010 |
| Tasmin Little | Royal Scottish National Orchestra | Sir Andrew Davis | Chandos | 2010 |
| Catherine Manoukian | Staatskapelle Weimar | Stefan Solyom | Edel | 2013 |
| Rachel Barton Pine | BBC Symphony Orchestra | Andrew Litton | Avie | 2018 |
| Ning Feng | Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra | Carlos Miguel Prieto | Channel Classics Records | 2018 |
| Thomas Albertus Irnberger | Royal Philharmonic Orchestra | James Judd | Gramola | 2019 |
| Nicola Benedetti | London Philharmonic Orchestra | Vladimir Jurowski | Decca | 2020 |
| Triin Ruubel | Estonian National Symphony Orchestra | Neeme Järvi | Sorel Classics | 2020 |
| Renaud Capuçon | London Symphony Orchestra | Sir Simon Rattle | Erato, Warner Classics | 2021 |
| Vilde Frang | Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin | Robin Ticciati | Warner Classics | 2024 |

## Critical opinion

The BBC Radio 3 feature "Building a Library" has presented comparative reviews of all available versions of the concerto on three occasions, and recommended as follows:
* 15 October 1994, reviewer, Michael Kennedy:
** Kyoko Takezawa, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Sir Colin Davis
** Yehudi Menuhin, London Symphony Orchestra, Sir Edward Elgar
* 10 July 1999, reviewer, Iain Burnside:
** Albert Sammons, New Queen's Hall Orchestra, Sir Henry Wood
** Pinchas Zukerman, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Daniel Barenboim
* 14 January 2012, reviewer, Martin Cotton:
** Yehudi Menuhin, London Symphony Orchestra, Sir Edward Elgar
** Thomas Zehetmair, Hallé Orchestra, Sir Mark Elder
The Penguin Guide to Recorded Classical Music, 2008, gave its maximum four star rating to none of the recordings of the concerto. It awarded three stars (representing "an outstanding performance and recording") to the recordings by Graffin, Heifetz, Kang, Kennedy (1984 and 1997), Menuhin (1932 and 1966), and Sammons (1929).