Elgar: The Longed-for Light: Elgar's Music in Wartime

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Here's a supremely enjoyable Elgar survey centred around a clutch of works composed during the Great War...Throughout, the BBC Concerto Orchestra respond with bright-eyed conviction and commendable... — Gramophone Magazine, January 2013 More…

Release Date: 12th Nov 2012
Catalogue No: SOMMCD247
Label: Somm
Length: 75 minutes

Presto Recording of the Week

5th November 2012
Gramophone Magazine

January 2013

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Elgar: Polonia

Work length13:20

$3.00

$3.85

BBC Concert Orchestra
John Wilson

Elgar: Carillon, Op. 75

Work length8:27

$2.00

$2.60

Simon Callow
BBC Concert Orchestra
John Wilson

Elgar: Sospiri, Op. 70

Work length4:52

$1.00

$1.30

BBC Concert Orchestra
John Wilson

Elgar: Une Voix dans le Désert

Work length11:04

$3.00

$3.85

Susan Gritton, Simon Callow
BBC Concert Orchestra
John Wilson

Elgar: Carissima

Work length3:51

$1.00

$1.30

BBC Concert Orchestra
John Wilson

Elgar: Le Drapeau Belge

Work length3:27

$1.00

$1.30

Simon Callow
BBC Concert Orchestra
John Wilson

Elgar: Rosemary

Work length3:28

$1.00

$1.30

BBC Concert Orchestra
John Wilson

Elgar: The Sanguine Fan, Op. 81

Work length17:59

$4.00

$5.15

BBC Concert Orchestra
John Wilson

Elgar: Sursum corda, Op. 11

Work length8:39

$2.00

$2.60

BBC Concert Orchestra
John Wilson

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Favourites, Edward Elgar

James offers his thoughts on some of the very best recordings of the music of Sir Edward Elgar.

Recording of the Week, Elgar and the First World War

5th November 2012

Sir Andrew Davis presides over a touching account of the incidental music for The Starlight Express, whilst John Wilson champions wartime rarities including Polonia, Carillon, and Le drapeau belge*; Simon Callow narrates with gusto on both recordings.

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.

Reviews

January 2013

Here's a supremely enjoyable Elgar survey centred around a clutch of works composed during the Great War...Throughout, the BBC Concerto Orchestra respond with bright-eyed conviction and commendable polish for John Wilson, whose endearingly communicative, shapely and affectionate readings...hold their own...Elgarians shoudl ceratinly lend an ear to this entreprising and rewarding Somm anthology

26th April 2013

This is a rewarding disc, giving us opportunities to hear some Elgar scores that rarely see the light of day. John Wilson is in evident sympathy with the music and secures consistently fine playing from the BBC Concert Orchestra...The texts are included - though you won’t need them to follow Simon Callow’s speech, so clear is his diction

5th November 2012

none of these pieces offers first-rate poetry, but Callow’s performance is so commanding that one hardly notices, and he clearly relishes moments such as the opening “Sing, Belgians, Sing!” of Carillon...With excellent performances all-round, the disc is a great place to start if you’re looking to explore the lesser-known works of Elgar.

18th November 2012

Un Voix dans le désert, Carillon and Le Drapeau Belge are melodramas to wartime verse by the Belgian Emile Cammaerts, vigorously proclaimed by Callow, with a taut solo from Gritton halfway through the first. More interesting agitprop is the purely orchestral Polonia

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Favourites, Edward Elgar

Recording of the Week, Elgar and the First World War

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