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Presto News - 9th November 2009Two important Elgar rarities |
 I’ve got two exciting Elgar rarities to tell you about this week – one written to commemorate the coronation of King George V and Queen Mary as Emperor and Empress of India in 1911, and the other a patriotic song-cycle written in 1917 as World War I was reaching its climax.  Edward Elgar The Crown of India is a substantial theatre work of about sixty minutes music written to accompany a masque with a libretto by Henry Hamilton. It is scored for contralto and bass soloists, chorus and orchestra. It is known that Elgar didn’t think much of the libretto, but he needed the money, and given only a month to complete the score it was composed almost entirely from themes he had jotted down over the previous ten years. Sadly the score was only published as a piano-vocal version and the remaining orchestral parts were destroyed in the 1960s. But following a commission from the Elgar Society, Anthony Payne has worked with the orchestral suite (5 movements of which have survived) and the piano-vocal version to re-create the score as Elgar may have written it. A new recording has just been released by Chandos, and is performed by Clare Shearer and Gerald Finley, with the BBC Philharmonic and Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus, conducted by Sir Andrew Davis. I’m not going to pretend that The Crown of India is up there with his best works, but there are passages of real beauty and it contains all the craft and inventiveness which one associates with Elgar. Furthermore, this recording is excellent. I’ve always enjoyed the warmth of sound that Andrew Davis brings to his recordings of Elgar and it is well worth hearing. Disc one contains the whole work including the narration, and disc 2 includes a version without the narration (which I think actually works better, on CD at least) and is supplemented by three marches. I’ve put a link to the whole of the ‘Crown of India March’ for you to listen to below and hope you will appreciate the quality of music which this work contains. The other major Elgar rarity to tell you about this week is his song cycle for four baritones and orchestra The Fringes of the Fleet, which has just seen its first professional orchestral recording since that made by Elgar himself in 1917. It is based on poems by Rudyard Kipling on the theme of life on board a ship, and was first performed at the London Coliseum as part of the twice-daily variety performances that were popular at the time. It must have been very exciting to see Britain’s leading composer and poet working together on a piece for the theatre, and by all reports it was very well received, continuing its twice daily run at the Coliseum for nearly two months and then touring the country as well. However, in November of that year Kipling asked for performances to be stopped, and Elgar felt obliged to comply. Why Kipling made that decision is unknown but the net effect was that the work disappeared from the repertoire almost overnight and has remained absent ever since. It is not a particularly long work (only thirteen minutes in length) but like The Crown of India contains some lovely music. It is also interesting to hear that Elgar could write music in this style at that time. I had previously only associated Elgar’s response to the First World War as being the Cello Concerto (written in 1919), where Elgar clearly laments both the loss of life and the loss of a way of life. The Fringes of the Fleet is a morale boosting song-cycle which is almost the exact opposite of the Cello Concerto. The performance is excellent and baritone Roderick Williams (who sings some other songs on the same disc) is particularly outstanding. I’ve put a link to the first of the four songs for you to listen to below.
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.jpg) Elgar: Crown of India, Op. 66Clare Shearer (mezzo-soprano), Gerald Finley (baritone), Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus & BBC Philharmonic, Sir Andrew Davis |
 Elgar: Fringes of the FleetRoderick Williams (solo baritone), Nicholas Lester, Duncan Rock, Laurence Meikle (baritones), Guildford Philharmonic, Tom Higgins
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Chris O'Reilly - chris@prestoclassical.co.uk |
listen - Elgar - March 'The Crown of India'New Releases9th November 2009 |
This is just the pick of the recent releases. The New Releases and Future Releases pages are always available for browsing all the new and forthcoming releases. |
 Schubert Edition - Volume 4 - HeliopolisMatthias Goerne (baritone) & Ingo Metzmacher (piano)Matthias Goerne has received worldwide praise for his warm, fluid baritone and his profound interpretations. Highly respected as a Lieder singer, he is a frequent guest at renowned festivals and prestigious venues like the New York Carnegie Hall and London Wigmore Hall. Famous pianists such as Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Leif Ove Andsnes, Alfred Brendel, Christoph Eschenbach and Elisabeth Leonskaja are among his musical partners. From 2008 to 2011, Matthias Goerne will perform and record the most beautiful songs by Franz Schubert on eleven CDs for Harmonia Mundi, and important venues including the Wigmore Hall will present the complete series of eleven Schubert recitals with Matthias Goerne in the coming seasons. |
 Concerto ItalianoGiuliano Carmignola (violin), Venice Baroque Orchestra, Andrea MarconTime and again, Giuliano Carmignola and Andrea Marcon’s Venice Baroque Orchestra prove that the consumer cannot get enough of Vivaldi & Co. The freshness and dynamism of their Italian Baroque concertos earned them their reputation as the top interpreters of this repertoire. Concerto italiano features a selection of violin concertos by Lolli, dall’Oglio, Stratico, Nardini, and Vivaldi. All selected and performed by Carmignola, the pre-eminent violinist for virtuosic repertoire takes listeners on a musical discovery tour from Baroque to early Classical. Includes three world premiere recordings. |
 Schumann - Maria Stuart LiederBernarda Fink (mezzo soprano) & Anthony Spiri (piano)“I would like to sing myself to death like a nightingale”, wrote Schumann in 1840, revealing a sudden passion for the lied, a genre he had hitherto disdained. Written in 1852 in a period of intense nervous suffering, the cycle of Poems of Queen Mary Stuart stands out for its austerity and exceptional concentration of resources; it might be seen as Schumann’s testament. |
 Schumann & Dvorak Piano ConcertosMartin Helmchen (piano), Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg, Marc AlbrechtMartin Helmchen’s last two CDs have both been Music Choice of the Month in BBC Music Magazine. His recording of the “Trout” received excellent reviews all over the world: “The young Martin Helmchen is as gifted a new pianist as I expect to hear for years” BBC Music Magazine. |
 Puccini - Ritrovato (Puccini rediscovered)Plácido Domingo & Violeta Urmana, Wiener Philharmoniker, Alberto VeronesiDeutsche Grammophon’s collaboration with Alberto Veronesi – which began in 2006 with a critically acclaimed complete recording of Puccini’s early opera Edgar, starring Plácido Domingo in the title role – continues this autumn with two very special releases. The Italian maestro is again joined by the legendary Spanish tenor as he turns his expertise – Veronesi has been music director of the prestigious Puccini Festival in Torre del Lago since 1999 – to a project of unusual interest entitled “Puccini ritrovato”: Puccini rediscovered. |
 Alfred Brendel - The Farewell ConcertsAlfred Brendel (piano)Alfred Brendel has for many years been among the world's greatest pianists; in concert, recital and on many best-selling recordings. Here, in his last CD release, recorded in the year of his retirement (2008), he gives his final public performances in solo recital and in concert - revealing a master musician in total command of his art. This 2CD digipak souvenir set captures these two memorable occasions. |
 Rachmaninoff Plays RachmaninoffSergei Rachmaninov (piano)Zenph re-performances of Rachmaninoff playing his own works in crystal-clear sound - the third release from Zenph Studios and Sony Masterworks. Rachmaninoff Plays Rachmaninoff follows upon the success of Zenph Studios’ productions of Glenn Gould’s 1955 recording of The Goldberg Variations (2007) and Art Tatum’s Piano Starts Here (2008). This new compilation of re-performances is made from original masters that the Russian composer and pianist recorded during his lifetime. The recording features Rachmaninoff playing five of his own compositions: the Prelude in C-sharp minor; the Etudes Tableaux in C major and E-flat major, Op. 33; “Daisies”; and Moment Musical in E-flat minor, Op. 16. It also includes Rachmaninoff’s renditions of Kreisler’s Liebesleid and Liebesfreud; Rimsky-Korsakov’s Flight of the Bumblebee; Mendelssohn’s scherzo from A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Tchaikovsky’s Lullaby. |
 Mahler: Symphony No. 7 in E minorOslo Philharmonic Orchestra, Mariss JansonsGustav Mahler’s strange and unworldly Symphony No. 7 is performed here by one of the great musical collaborations of the last 20 years, the internationally renowned conductor Mariss Jansons and the orchestra with which he originally came to prominence, the Oslo Philharmonic. Today Mariss Jansons is one of the most sought after conductors in the world. |
 BBC Radio 3 CD ReviewSaturday 7th November 2009 |
Building a Library - Britten: War Requiem, Op. 66 |
 First ChoiceGalina Vishnevskaya (soprano), Peter Pears (tenor), Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (baritone) & Simon Preston (organ) London Symphony Orchestra, Melos Ensemble, London Symphony Orchestra Chorus, Highgate School Choir & The Bach Choir, Benjamin Britten |
Disc of the Week |
 Chopin: Complete WaltzesIngrid Fliter (piano) |
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