BBCSO/Adrian Boult ICA Classics ICAC 5063****

There's no knowing how sophisticated digital manipulation is going to get. Will the engineers of the future be able to marry or merge the rawness and grunt of Adrian Boult's 1977 BBC Proms performance of Brahms's Third Symphony (issued here for the first time) with something that's more technically precise? The Brahms is full of good things, but there are also any number of spongy rhythmic bulges to improve upon in the BBC Symphony Orchestra's playing. There's no need to engage in such imaginings for the orchestra's performance of Elgar's First Symphony, taped at the Proms a year earlier. This offers simply superb music-making, Elgar on the wing, secure, purposeful, seamless, sans longueurs. If you're one of those music lovers who's never quite warmed to Elgar in symphonic mode, this would be a great place to start. See url.ie/e6sy