Simon Callow

The outbreak of the Great War caused Elgar much anguish and depression and the music composed during these years reflects his sorrow and deep patriotism.

Apart from Elgar’s early Sursum Corda Op. 11 (composed in 1894), this disc takes us on a musical journey from shortly before the war began to the composer’s last wartime orchestral work, The Sanguine Fan, a shaft of light during the darkest days of the war in 1917. The music on this disc, although not premiere recordings (they were originally recorded by the HMV label), this is the first modern recording not only of these works but also to provide a unique survey of Elgar’s compositions of this time.

Performed by the BBC Concert Orchestra and conducted by John Wilson, this CD also includes Susan Gritton and the renowned actor Simon Callow who is the speaker on Le Drapeau Belge Op 79.

The Starlight Express was adapted from a book by Algernon Blackwood, A Prisoner in Fairyland, for a theatre production in the West End during the First World War, with music by Sir Edward Elgar. Combining the usually contrasting elements of fairytale and melodrama, The Starlight Express depicts the fantasy world inhabited by a group of children, who possess a magical ‘starlight’ quality that has been lost by the adults around them. This is the most comprehensive recorded version of The Starlight Express to date, based on a new score prepared by the Elgar Edition, which has been adapted by the conductor Sir Andrew Davis.

Our recording includes, in place of the play, a detailed account of the story, penned by the conductor Sir Andrew Davis better to reflect the original book and our pattern of speech today. ‘All the music, excepting the songs and interludes, was designed as melodrama, and in some cases it is meaningless on its own’, explains Sir Andrew, continuing: ‘I have therefore taken the bold step of writing a narrative which is based partly on the play and partly on ‘A Prisoner in Fairyland’.

Our narrator is the actor Simon Callow, known to an international audience for his roles in films such as Four Weddings and a Funeral and Shakespeare in Love. Callow was delighted to be approached, as he already knows and loves this music, having delivered the narrative in a specially recorded concert performance of the incidental music, broadcast on BBC Radio 3 in 2007. The incidental music, complete with melodramatic passages which work in conjunction with the narrative, occupies all of Disc 1 and continues onto Disc 2. Then we have an extended suite of freestanding orchestral movements and songs.

As a bonus, we have included three songs which link directly to this work. When a staged version of Blackwood’s book was first proposed, in 1914, another young composer, Clive Carey, was commissioned to compose the incidental music; but the outbreak of war forced the cancellation of the original production. When the plans were next revived, Elgar was approached, and he enthusiastically completed the score. However, Clive Carey had already composed three songs, but they were never included in the final production. They have been orchestrated by Sir Andrew Davis for this recording, and are heard here for the very first time.

Our recording of The Starlight Express is performed by the Scottish Chamber Orchestra under Sir Andrew Davis with two internationally acclaimed soloists: the soprano Elin Manahan Thomas and baritone Roderick Williams.

Hafliði Hallgrímsson, now based in Edinburgh, is one of the leading figures in Scottish musical life, and his latest work Mini Stories sets the surreal poetry of the Soviet-era writer Daniil Kharms to music.Whilst internationally renowned actor Simon Callow brings Kharms's texts to life, the Icelandic Caput Ensemble reflect the mood with stellar performances of Hallgrímsson's evocative accompanying composition.

"a glorious concoction of Russian surrealist stories … with highly original, sometimes aphoristic and always apposite music that ranged from abstraction to reflection to manic hilarity…" The Herald

"a clever, entertaining, but ultimately unsettling piece of music-theatre. Kharms and Hallgrímsson make you laugh one minute, then feel vaguely guilty for laughing the next." The Scotsman

The Christmas net is cast wide in this captivating collection of seasonal music.

John Fox has crafted a delightful Carol Fantasia. Bryan Kelly’s Scrooge is an action-packed Dickens compression, brought to visceral life by esteemed actor Simon Callow, who also narrates Philip Lane’s Another Night Before Christmas, an update by Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy of the classic poem. Lane’s Old Christmas Music is expressively rich, and spans the centuries. Smaller pieces from Liszt, orchestrated by Gordon Jacob, Rebikov and more recent works, complete a delightful selection.

Peter Beveridge – Producer & Director

The acclaimed actor and writer, Simon Callow returns for a second grand tour as host and narrator of Classical Destinations II. This unique second TV series combines travel to some of the most amazing cities in Europe with their history, the composer’s great stories and their music.

The Australian Chamber Orchestra, with their Artistic Director Richard Tognetti, joins Simon as he discovers the great composers by explorying beautiful cities and regions of Europe that inspired them to write the music that has endured for years.

Bonus 32 page book.

Approximate running time: 8 hours 37 mins

Languages: English

2 x 50 gb dual layer discs

Dolby digital 5.1 ^ DTS HD Master Audio

Henry Purcell is a mystery. We know where he’s buried (next to Vaughan Williams in Westminster Abbey), but that’s about it. We don’t even know who paid for his memorial stone in the Abbey. No-one knows for sure where he was born or even precisely when he was born. We don’t know who his father was, nor the name of his mother. He lived exactly the same number of years as Mozart – only thirty-five – but we only know in detail what he did for three of those years. Page after page of the manuscripts of some of his master-works are completely blank. Purcell was – and is – a mystery, except that we know he wrote over a thousand works, at least one for every working week of his life.

How then to make a film about such a mysterious, almost non-existent, ‘person’ whose glorious music remains our principal source of ‘information’? I knew that John Osborne, with whom I had worked several times, played Purcell’s music more-or-less continuously in his great house in Shropshire – as he later wrote for the film, “I lived among the hills foot-marked here, rooted here, in ancient English time.” Although already very sick, the challenge breathed new life into the old dog, as he would have said. Tragically he died before the film was finished, and his work was skillfully completed by his friend (he always referred to him as ‘Corporal’) Charles Wood.

The film was first shown in its entirety on Channel FOUR in the UK on Christmas Day 1995 to mark the 300th anniversary of Purcell’s death.