Advantages: A Ken Russell classic not to be missed
Disadvantages: None, unless you are expecting a Ken Russell "shocker"

...contrasted with his strong religious faith, and then - following his wife's death, his despair at being left alone. Admittedly there are some inaccuracies in the film - perhaps most particularly in that his early success in Germany was first from the Enigma Variations rather than the later Dream of Gerontius, and also Elgar's antipathy towards his best known composition "Land of Hope and Glory/Pomp and Circumstance March" was in no way as strong as depicted in the film. There are also major omissions in that his relationship with Alice Stuart-Wortley is completely ignored, but back in the 60s Elgar scholarship was still in its infancy and perhaps there were too many people still alive to whom such revelations could have been offensive. But none of this should in any way deter someone from watching this film, as it does not suffer as... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful

Advantages: It is simply one of the finest pieces of music ever written
Disadvantages: How dare you ask of any disadvantges!?!

...THE MAN: SIR EDWARD ELGAR It's probably futile for me to tell you who is Edward Elgar. To the British readers here he holds about the same position as Sibelius does for me as a Finn, being THE composer whose musical language captures the ideologies of the country, working as a kind of stereotypical signature for the people. Elgar was born in 1857 as the son of a music shop owner and through a course of self-instruction became a masterful orchestrator and soon found himself as a reknowned choral composer with a great deal of choral works and other religiously titled pieces to his credit. However, it was not until 1899 that his reputation was sealed as a truly great composer when he wrote the masterful "Variations on an Original Theme 'Enigma'", which contained musical portraits of friends of Elgar and became an instant success. After... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful

Advantages: Intriguing story, keeps you guessing right up to the end
Disadvantages: Awful pacing at the beginning of the movie... the movie is almost in reverse!!

...This is a review of a TEST SCREENING of the not-yet-released movie Enigma starring Dougray Scott and Kate Winslet and apparently produced by THE Mick Jagger. Please be aware that the released version of this movie may be much different to the movie I saw more than a month ago. So how did I get involved in this screening? Well, my friend went to see a movie over the weekend and got enticed by a person hanging around the lobby of the cinema asking if she’d like to see a FREE movie – yes please she said and she kindly offered to take me along. Anyway onto the movie... Enigma is a World War II drama involving, surprisingly enough, the Enigma machine and the code-breakers of Bletchley Park. This is not your typical Hollywood war extravaganza with blood and guts and plenty of explosions, rather this is a more cerebral... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: Good nights, more discerning crowd, good value
Disadvantages: ends at 2:00am, only one floor

...Enigma is situated on Ship Street above the Jazz Rooms, so at least in winter you don't get completely frozen by the searing wind coming off the Downs when you leave it (unlike the clubs on the seafront!) As the Zap, Escape and Honey club descend into more and more epic house cheesiness, places like the Volks, Jazz Rooms and Enigma are becoming a favoured destination with those who have more discerning clubbing tastes throughout the week. One night in particular at the Enigma which has a lot to recommend it is Phonic Hoop. A mixture of deeper house, beats 'n breaks, funk, hip-hop and any other musical nuggets you can, it has succeeded in attracting some 'name' DJs. So the music is pumping, the only downside is that as it is not on the seafront, the night must end at 2:00am. The club itself is a bit rough-hewn but not overly so... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: Nice watchable film, little unsuitable language
Disadvantages: watch it and see - none that I noticed.

...Enigma (directed by Michael Apted) has Tom Jericho (Dougray Scott) returned to Bletchley Park after a nervous breakdown to try and break secret German codes after they were suddenly changed and became undecipherable. His girl-friend Claire (Saffron Burrows) had dissapeared and along with her room - mate Hester (Kate Winslet) start looking for her. To crack the codes it requires a convoy of much needed goods to steer directly into the path of waiting German u-boats, so that they can get the position and course of the convoy (which those in Bletchley Park already know) from German radio messages and if they get enough of them, they can use this to decipher the new codes, which they eventually do, but at the cost of a number of ships and lives. There is also the problem of a traitorin Bletchley Park who has to be discovered... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: Its British, Its a spy film and Saffron is cute
Disadvantages: The camera gives it all away

...I had heard of this film a long time ago, before they had even started filming for it. Apparently Kate Winslet and her then husband were going to use their film studio to retell the story of the Enigma machine (which broke the codes of German U-boats) thereby putting history straight and telling the film U571 to bog off. This is quite an elaborate way of doing it though it has to be said. I guess the complexities of the script owe much to Tom Stoppard who is good at weaving difficult fictional stories around historical fact (Shakespeare in love was great for Shakespeare bringing inspiration for his plays from his own life happenings). I loved what they did with this WWII story though, combining Romance and Spy novels into one - great stuff, haven't seen a good spy film in yonks. Dougray Scott is a codebreaker for the Government, he... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: Good show, hurrah for the British Empire!
Disadvantages: Hum, humph...

...EVENING AT THE CLUB Outside of his concertos, symphonies and choral music, I suppose none of Sir Edward Elgar's works are as well remembered by the general populus than his marches. Though they can't really be called "important" works, they do have a distinct air of stereotypical British pompousness about them that defines the English Imperialism and sense of brash importance on the rage before the First World War. As regards Elgar, these considerations are also often mixed with the thoughts of a refined country gentleman that Elgar's personality ironically seems to enbody despite being born as the son of a shopkeeper, a profession that was considered almost impossible to escape. As such I think Elgar has more than earned to be called a "counter-jumper", which is applied to those who have managed to escape this background. And if... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful

Advantages: Committed performance, spacious recording, low price
Disadvantages: None

...When Sir Edward Elgar died in 1934 it was generally believed that the symphony commissioned from him by the BBC died with him. It was known that he had written some sketches but that in total they amounted to little of substance. This was odd since a large proportion of these sketches were printed in facsimile in a book on Elgar, written by one of his friends shortly after his death. Some parts were already fully scored and many other parts were detailed and specific about Elgar's intentions; yet they caused little interest in the musical community at large, perhaps because Elgar had written nothing of major significance since the death of his wife in 1920 - so what would a handful of sketches contain? The few specialists who did show any inclination to do anything with the sketches were denied the opportunity since the Elgar family... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: The Best Recording Ever
Disadvantages: None

...Elgar’s Cello Concerto in E Minor, Op. 85 Jacqueline du Pre and the LSO, conducted by Sir John Barbirolli Madam, you have an instrument between your legs capable of giving pleasure to thousands, and all you can do is sit there and scratch it! So said the eminently witty conductor Sir Thomas Beecham, in reference to a lady ‘cellist. He certainly wasn’t, however, referring to the unmatchable Jacqueline du Pre, who, in my humble opinion, was the most gifted cellist ever and whose short, tragic life is somehow augured by this melancholic recording. It’s an EMI classic, which means that it’s an old, old recording, but so good that it shouldn’t be lost at the bottom of a pile of old vinyls at a jumble sale, but digitally re-mastered and made available for future generations on CD. The original... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful

Advantages: Highly burnished, engaging, musically intelligent and emotionally mature playing; beautiful tone is never saccharine.
Disadvantages: Nil.

...It would be one of the most daunting works to take on for any musician, given the history of its recording, yet British cellist Natalie Clein decided to do it. It took her some ten years to get to the point where she felt ready to tackle it again for posterity, and this CD gives her good reason to be proud. ELGAR'S CELLO CONCERTO AND DU PRÉ So what's so intimidating about Edward Elgar's Cello Concerto? Besides its call in the performer for technical virtuosity and a mature musical understanding of the piece, the concerto has also been inextricably linked with Jacqueline du Pré (1945 - 1987), cellist extraordinaire, who was tragically struck down at the prime of life by multiple sclerosis. Her landmark 1965 recording, made when she was just twenty (with John Barbirolli conducting the London Symphony Orchestra), is still hallowed by... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful