MUSICAL OPINION:
This truly outstanding Divine Art CD is both an example of the musical teamwork and individual excellence of Wales’ own National [Youth] Orchestra and the unique sense of communication which Owain Arwel Hughes imparts to his listeners through the players. Elgar’s Second Symphony is delivered with a bold fluency and deeply felt eloquence in the Larghetto, which here leads naturally to the high spirits of the Rondo’s Presto. Then, the wonderful cello tune of the final Moderato e maestoso, the perfect duo of instructions, absolutely adhered to by Owain Arwel Hughes.

Wales is lucky to have a major international composer in Alun Hoddinott and the dances he created for the occasion of Prince Charles’ Investiture as Prince of Wales in Caernafon Castle in July 1969 had already made a successful appearance under Sir Charles Groves’ baton on 22 June. They deserve more regular airings and hopefully this excellent disc will help their progress along the path of British Dances.
Denby Richards

INTERNATIONAL RECORD REVIEW:
It is always an engrossing experience to hear a well-trained youth orchestra in a major late-Romantic work, because it often will have had many more rehearsals than its professional colleagues and boast larger string numbers, against which the usually full wind and brass writing will blend more comfortably. In addition, youthful players often bring an enthusiasm to their music-making that is not always met with in professional orchestras. Few things are musically more inept than to hear a Mahler symphony played an orchestra with the same number of string players as would be fielded for one by Brahms, and a new disc of Elgar’s Second Symphony goes a long way to prove my point – almost , but not quite, for the National Youth Orchestra of Wales (2006 vintage) under Owain Arwel Hughes lists just five violists, alongside 15 second violins, 13 cellos, and so on. In most instances, this would not matter much, but in the finale the second subject is less prominent within the texture than it ought to be.

None the less, this is a fine performance of the Symphony; only at the highest level did I miss a greater intensity preceding the first movement coda and in the final third of the Scherzo. Some may feel that the initial tempo for the finale is a shade fast, and in the development section of that movement the young violinists are stretched technically. Yet much of this performance is really splendid and, after the exposed passages in the finale until the end of the Symphony, the conducting and playing are magnificent and very moving. The Scherzo follows the slow movement after a brief pause – it works very well here – and overall I would urge Elgarians to hear this account, which is way above the ordinary and is very well recorded.

Also on the disc is Hoddinott’s Investiture Dances, op. 66 – the third recording of this brilliant work which ends with a very catchy tune the composer was later to use in the Overture to his children’s opera What The Old Man Does is Always Right, Hughes pushes his young virtuosi in the finale, but they respond with tremendous panache and evident enjoyment.
Robert Matthew-Walker

CLASSICALNET:
This new recording of Elgar's magnificent 2 nd symphony is a fascinating one and it is a true statement of the qualities that inform the National Youth Orchestra of Wales. Although they cannot really match the best of orchestras in such demanding repertoire, especially with the plethora of recordings of this symphony around, they give an excellent account of themselves. In the Allegro vivace e nobilmente, the pace is just right with a sizzling conclusion to the coda of the movement. I greatly enjoyed the emotional Larghetto although will still retain my affection for Boult and Barbirolli who remain sine qua non in this particular piece. The Finale has some occasional slipups but is otherwise a tour de force although the recording is somewhat on the dry side. It is also good to have Alun Hoddinott's Investiture Dances on CD and with this fine reading, I'm sure the work will win many fans. As I already indicated, the recordings are on the dry side but with copious notes and fine presentation, this new version of Elgar's 2 nd should prove to be a winner.
Gerald Fenech

CLASSIC FM MAGAZINE:
Elgar’s Second is a notoriously tricky warhorse, but the youngsters of the (here we go) Cerddorfa Genedlaethol Ieunctid Cymru acquit themselves splendidly, with a particularly heartfelt reading of the great second movement and a stirring contribution form the percussion department. But, of course, they are in a competitive marketplace and one could not in all honesty prefer this version to Barbirolli’s , say, or Handley’s. The Hoddinott, however, is not otherwise available – three short folk-inspired pieces, which the Welsh players have obviously taken to their hearts. Whether the Investiture Dances make this sufficient reason to invest is a moot point.

(Awarded three stars)
Jeremy Nicholas

LIVERPOOL DAILY ECHO:
It is always an exciting occasion when a National Youth Orchestra gives a concert. The skill of the young musicians and the way they rise to the occasion is always guaranteed to make a concert special. But there is more than one National Youth Orchestra in Great Britain. Now we have the Welsh Orchestra on record, under Owain Arwel Hughes, giving a fine showing in Elgar’s 2nd Symphony, recorded in the Prichard Jones Hall, Bangor, last April [2006]. The Cd released by Divine Art also includes the Investiture Dances written in 1969 for the event at Caernarfon, which could be by Malcolm Arnold, but are in fact by Alun Hoddinott. A very creditable release indeed.
Peter Spaull

MUSICWEB:
This version of Elgar 2 has a lot going for it but it is not going to dislodge the favoured few. There is nothing amiss with the playing and the recording catches the subtle autumnal shades as well as the sable and ermine. Arwel Hughes knows this music extremely well so the orchestra are in safe hands. The style favours Boult's philosophical grandiloquence (yes, even in the 1940s recording) rather than Solti's and Svetlanov's passionate fervour. Where I expect to be transfixed by the scimitar lancing of the violins at the peak of the second movement we get instead a more staggered emphasis. Listen though to the lovely cradling of the passage at I (10:14 onwards). This reading has a marmoreal tone and a measured tread which places it in the Elgarian ‘mainstream’. Examples abound but try the slow movement at 8.29. Predictably, the quicksilver does not fly as it should in the third movement. This is music that can too easily lean towards a strangely sensational lethargy - part of the received Elgarian style.  Then again there are masterly touches in the poetically judged and weighted downward sigh of the symphony's last five minutes. This is done with wonderfully sustained sensitivity. 

The reader must beware my recommendations in Elgar. I favour Silvestri in In the South, Solti in the symphonies, Du Pré's live Philadelphia recording over the EMI Classics studio version, Barbirolli in Introduction and Allegro and Heifetz in the Violin Concerto. Though I tried hard with Boult and Menuhin in the symphonies and violin concerto they never held me. For me the Elgarian revelation came with a BBCTV relay of Solti's Elgar 2 in the early 1970s. Perhaps I am becoming a reformed character though: I surprised myself the other day by greatly enjoying Colin Davis's Proms 2006 broadcast of Elgar 2. This was despite its relaxed handling of the first two movements. The last two movements were all the more telling for the build-up achieved across the allegro and larghetto. 

After too short a silence come the three Hoddinott Investiture Dances. Hoddinott delivered the work for Prince Charles' Investiture at Caernarfon Castle. It is accessible music a good few leagues away from his symphonic style. Much the same can be said of Frankel and Arnold. These are really catchy, optimistic and heady pieces in the case of I and III. It is murmurously nostalgic in the case of II which has some kinship with similar haunting music in the Cornish Dances of Malcolm Arnold - another Celtic brother. He does not try the ‘pumped up’ treatment accorded to dance material by Grace Williams in her Ballads for Orchestra - a masterly piece but written with wholly different intentions. Hoddinott’s dances are superbly carried off by the young players. While Malcolm Arnold's dances deservedly enjoy multiple recordings I hope that the orchestral dances of Mathias and Hoddinott, which are every bit as good, are remembered and revived frequently. Interesting to note that the last recording of these dances was made by the same orchestra shortly after the premiere and issued on a Music for Pleasure LP. There the conductor was Arthur Davison, the NYOW’s music director for many years.

The notes by Peter Reynolds are outstandingly good having some fascinating touches woven in.
Rob Barnett

INTERNATIONAL RECORD REVIEW:
Rather unwisely, the lively first of Alun Hoddinott’s (three) Investiture Dances follows the tranquil of ambiguous close of Elgar’s symphony – and then after a mere eight seconds of silence! Hoddinott composed Investiture Dances for the investiture of Charles as Prince of Wales in 1969 – music first heard in London under Sir Charles Groves. Hoddinott doesn’t use Welsh folk tunes but characteristics of them. The second Dance is rather eerie and redolent of the corresponding one in the later Sir Malcolm Arnold’s set of Cornish Dances (1966). The National Youth Orchestra of Wales (founded in 1945, reveals the booklet biography, or 1946 according to Divine Art’s presentation, and with Owain Arwel Hughes now as its music director) plays with skill, unanimity and identification.

In one of Elgar’s most complex works, under Hughes’s thoughtful direction, the orchestra gives a considered view but not a competitive version: there is a lack of fire, and some of the playing, despite being captured under studio conditions, doesn’t pass muster. That said, it is also a very creditable account for a youth orchestra under a conductor who certainly steers his charges responsibly through the work. The problem is not so much the spacious tempos (mostly applicable to the first movement) but the lack of voltage: this is a well prepared and dedicated performance that doesn’t really take off. If the under-projected opening (both emotionally and in terms of tempo) coheres when slower-moving episodes are reached, one listens more in admiration as to what has been achieved rather than becoming immersed in the music itself.

The orchestra’s personnel is listed and includes 30 violins (16/14) and 13 cellos, although both the violas and double basses are deficient in numbers, respectively counted as five and six. Does this reflect two instruments not being taken up by youngsters generally? Although the ear hears a reasonably strong bass line, the muddle string registers are not perceived with the same presence. Woodwinds are profuse, though, including six each of flutes and clarinets, and presumably all those on the roster are playing (it’s not uncommon for youth orchestras to be so outsized). There are four harpists, and brass numbers are “standard”.

If the Elgar had been heard in a concert, I think anyone would leave the hall having been impressed by the musicians’ application. But this is a recording. The second-movement Larghetto lacks glow, and although such introspection could be considered equable with mourning, the underlying passion that should sustain this movement isn’t always apparent and Hughes tends to harry it along. The strings are a little “grey” and thin, which is partly to do with the relatively distant perspective given to the orchestra, with detail not always clear enough – although the engineering is pleasingly natural and unobtrusive – which contributes to a marmoreal feel. What should be a fleet and nightmarish scherzo is a little cautious. In the finale the emotional stakes are raised, although there is room for even more sentiment, and the trumpets’ interjection (5’12” – 4’13”) could have usefully been held longer to really sear through the texture. There is a memorable “ice-cold” moment when the music turns in on itself (around the 13’40” mark).

A brave choice, valiantly undertaken, this is a fine souvenir for all involved and a calling-card for the National Youth Orchestra of Wales and its devotion to the performance of food music. The booklet contains notes in English and Welsh.
Colin Anderson