"....The harmonic language of Elgar’s “Enigma Variations” always keeps the piece’s posture upright, but Tovey and the BSO illustrated how “upright” does not necessarily mean “stiff.” Conducting from memory, he emphasized understated sweetness in the two most romantic variations, which were addressed to the composer’s wife and an unidentified lady. The quirky personalities of many variations’ dedicatees jumped out of the instruments: flourishes and bellows to represent a high-flown squire, a pleased fanfare for a dog’s triumphant bark, insistent timpani against warring strings and brass for an incompetent pianist. Tovey lent graceful manipulation of color and crescendo to the ninth movement, the British funeral standard “Nimrod,” inducing a deep shiver. Juxtaposed with so many jests and jokes, the brief moment in twilight was all the more moving."

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