The newest release from SOMM Recordings is an unusual but exciting pairing of two string quartets by British and French contemporaries Sir Edward Elgar (1857-1934) and Gabriel Faure (1845-1924). Also included is a collection of shorter gems transcribed for string quartet by the British composer, arranger, and pianist Iain Farrington. These comprise Elgar's Carissima (originally composed for small orchestra) and selections from Faure's Piano Preludes: Nos. 4, 8, and 9, this last described by Aaron Copland as being "so absolutely simple that we can never hope to understand how it can contain such great emotional power." This recording features the Eusebius Quartet, formed in 2016 out of a passion for the extraordinary music written for this instrumentation, and praised as "excellent" by The Sunday Times. Their debut CD for SOMM of the Korngold Piano Quintet & Quartet (SOMMCD 0642) received critical acclaim: "Wit and clarity abound in the Quartet's Viennese-sounding performances, " The Strad; "The musicians seem to feel the music just as it is, complex on the surface, but direct and straight from the heart, " BBC Music Magazine. Elgar and Faure met once at the time of the London premiere of Elgar's First Symphony in 1908. Although Faure spoke no English and Elgar's French wasn't exactly conversational, it's fascinating to compare the musical language of their two quartets, both in the key of E minor, and written late in the composers' lives. Edward Elgar was a more than competent violinist, and he made several attempts throughout his career to write a string quartet. Finally, ill and depressed by war-time London in 1918, he completed his String Quartet, Op. 83. It is cast in three movements, the outer Allegro movements bookending one marked Piacevole (poco andante). This slow middle movement, which contains a quotation from Elgar's Chanson de Matin, was a favourite of Lady Elgar, who described it as "captured sunshine." It was played at her funeral in 1920. Gabriel Faure composed his only String Quartet, Op. 121 in 1924, shortly before his death at the age of 79. By this time, he had been totally deaf for some years, and the quartet suggests a mind driven within itself in a way that hints at Beethoven's Late String Quartets. This final work of Faure presents an extraordinary duality, which masks the romantic ideas of his earlier music with what the English composer and writer Robert Matthew-Walker calls "a soft steely twilight that at times appears almost menacing." As with Elgar's quartet, the central Andante movement particularly captures the imagination with it's musical colouration suggesting a world of half-lights.
Elgar: The Dream of Gerontius / McCreesh, Gabrieli Consort
Signum Classics
CD
$16.49$32.99Save 50%Apr 26, 2024
The Dream of Gerontius by Edward Elgar is a two-part work for voices and orchestra composed in 1900 to text by John Henry Newman. Widely regarded as Elgar's finest choral work, and by some his masterpiece, Gabrieli’s first-class performance, and McCreesh’s superb interpretation demonstrate why their recordings are seen as some of the best in classical music today.
REVIEW:
This strong performance is apparently the first to use historically appropriate instruments. The trombone, just to give the listener an idea, was owned by Elgar. Tenor Nicky Spence, in the lead role, offers a rich, serious performance. McCreesh’s interpretation focuses on the chorus, placing the work in the grand English oratorio tradition.
Parallels - Late Romantic & Contemporary Organ Music / Ffinch
Divine Art
CD
$20.99Mar 01, 2024
Parallels is meticulously curated album that explores the organ’s remarkable breadth and sonority. Featuring three monumental organ works and delightful arrangements of English classics, the collection is a testament to the grandeur and versatility of the instrument.
Florence Price's Suite No. 1, makes its debut commercial recording. This substantial and captivating composition draws inspiration from spirituals, hymns, and pentatonic themes, showcasing a harmonious fusion of jazz influences. The rhythmic drive and themes in the final Toccato pay homage to the engaging Rubrics by Dan Locklair, creating a seamless connection between the featured works. The album's title, Parallels, reflects Florence Price's artistic vision, aiming to convey a heritage through the past while being influenced by contemporary contacts. This intention is beautifully realised in Suite No. 1, where the chromatic harmony reminiscent of Suite Gothique meets the rhythmic vitality of Rubrics. As a nod to the present day, the album includes Alexander's own arrangement of Coldplay's hit single Paradise, seamlessly blending modernity with Price's timeless compositions. Parallels is not just an album; it's a transformative auditory experience that invites listeners to explore the intersections of tradition and innovation on the Harrison and Harrison organ. The past converges with the present in perfect harmony.
The surprise appearances of music not typically associated with the organ successfully adds an element of excitement and discovery. The album also features splendid organ arrangements of English staples like Elgar's Chanson de Matin and Pomp and Circumstance, further showcasing the instrument's versatility. "Parallels" is an invitation to discover the intersections of tradition and innovation, a celebration of timeless compositions, and a showcase of the capabilities of Cheltenham College Chapel’s Harrison and Harrison organ. This album also celebrates the 150th anniversary of Gustav Holst’s birth with the inclusion of Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity fromThe Planets Op. 32 arranged by Thomas Trotter.
Alexander Ffinch has established himself as a renowned organist with performances spanning the UK, Europe, USA, and Asia. Notable for his role as the College Organist at Cheltenham College since 2004, Alexander oversees daily organ performances in the College Chapel and accompanies choirs while maintaining an active schedule as a recitalist, featuring prominently in events like the Cheltenham International Music Festival and BBC Radio 3 broadcasts. His 2019 album, "Transformations" (DDA 25193), received critical acclaim.
Elgar: Violin Concerto; Salut d'Amour; Delius: Suite
Channel Classics
CD
$20.99Feb 21, 2025
'If you want to know who, for me, is the greatest living composer, I'll tell you without hesitation - it's Elgar, whom I place on the same level as my idols Beethoven and Brahms!' So said the great virtuoso Kreisler.' Nicolas Dautricourt continues: 'This Concerto, with it's unbridled lyricism and unique proportions, is an Everest for any violinist.' In this, his first recording for Channel Classics, the French violinist brings together three works by two English composers. In 1888, in the same year Elgar wrote the famous Salut d'amour for his fiancee Caroline Alice Roberts, Frederick Delius composed his Suite for Violin and Orchestra, one of his very first works. The Suite, which only received it's premiere in 1984, is heard here in this insightful arrangement by Frederic Chaslin for violin, piano and string quartet.
Elgar Reimagined / Wallfisch, Woods, English String Orchestra
Lyrita
CD
$20.99Feb 04, 2022
“Although Elgar was a highly accomplished violinist, he wrote no mature string chamber music until, at the end of his creative life, he produced three major works: a violin sonata, a piano quintet and a string quartet. Both outer movements of the quartet are full of mercurial changes of mood; both end at the last minute in the major, the finale with an exhilarating display of renewed energy. In between comes an intermezzo marked ‘Piacevole’, ‘peacefully’ – a pastoral C major interlude between the two stormy outer movements. Alice Elgar was particularly fond of this movement, and it was played at her funeral in 1920. In 2002, I arranged the slow movement for string orchestra and George Vass conducted it that year at the Deal Festival. The remainder of the Quartet was orchestrated in 2010. The substantial part of the arrangement is the addition of a double bass part, but I have also thickened the upper parts in a number of places. At two points in the first movement and at the end of the Andante I have preserved the original writing for solo strings. The arrangement was commissioned by the John S. Cohen Foundation.” (David Matthews) “In 2019 English Symphony Orchestra were asked to give the official 100th Anniversary performance of the Elgar Cello Concerto. It was at that concert that Wallfisch met composer Donald Fraser, whose choral arrangement of Elgar’s Sea Pictures was being featured on the same concert. Wallfisch suggested that perhaps Fraser arranged and orchestrate a few of Elgar’s shorter works for cello and strings, and over the following year the project expanded in scope to finally comprise the eleven-movement suite heard here.” (Kenneth Woods)
With their new CD "Hymne à l'amour"; the Duo Minerva once again shows how exciting and multifaceted classical music can sound. Their arrangements; woven with great artistry; their virtuosity and their exceptionally emotional style of music-making breathe fresh life into often-heard works. With a great deal of playfulness; the well-rehearsed duo moves between the most diverse genres and combines classical masterpieces with contemporary avant-garde; folk music and a pinch of the as yet unheard on the subject of love - entirely in Duo Minerva style.
Johannes Moser's acclaimed interpretation of Elgar's profoundly elegiac and lyrical Cello Concerto and of Tchaikovsky's elegant Rococo Variations returns to the market in an affordable stereo edition. The programme also contains Tchaikovsky's Nocturne and Morceau de Concert for Cello and Orchestra, as well as an arrangement of the famous Andante cantabile from his First String Quartet. Performed together with Orchestre de la Suisse Romande under the baton of Andrew Manze, Moser's rendition was praised by Gramophone as "one of the finest we've had in years."
Tchaikovsky, Liszt, Beach et al: Amoroso - Duos for Guitar & Cello / Peña Comas, Lancelle
Ars Produktion
CD
$20.99Oct 21, 2022
It is difficult to imagine a more touching sound than the gentle voice of a cello accompanied by the sweet tones of a Spanish guitar. In fact, for Nicole Peña Comas and Damien Lancelle, these two instruments sound so amorous together that they require an entire album to express all facets of love: passion, tenderness and lust, the burning desire of new lovers and affection for friends and family. Masterpieces by Tchaikovsky, Liszt or Robert Schumann as well as undiscovered treasures by August Nölck or Amy Beach have been selected and arranged for cello and guitar because they all set love to music.
There is Sweet Music - Elgar: Part Songs / Shellard, Proteus Ensemble
Avie Records
CD
$19.99Nov 08, 2024
There Is Sweet Music is the idyllic title of the first AVIE release by the eight-voice Proteus Ensemble and their conductor Stephen Shellard, which surveys a selection of relatively rare part-songs by Sir Edward Elgar. Elgar maintained his dedication to composing part-songs throughout his life and imbued each of them with an inimitable character. Like the composer's celebrated "Enigma Variations", his part-songs bear an array of inspirations and dedicatees, including his wife Caroline Alice who penned the poem of the album's closer, "O Happy Eyes", shortly after she and Elgar were married. This early work became a companion to the song "Love," written eight years later and also dedicated to Caroline Alice. Elgar turned to famous poets and peers - Lord Byron for "Deep in my soul", Percy Bysshe Shelley for "O wild West Wind!", and Alfred Lord Tennyson whose poem "The Lotos-Eaters" provides the album's title track. English translations of Russian poems lend themselves to "Death on the Hills", "Love's Tempest" and "Serenade". Elgar frequently found inspiration in Italy, where he composed "Angelus', a song dedicated to his close friend Alice Stuart Wortley whom he called "Windflower" and whose spirit is enshrined in his Violin Concerto. Stephen Shellard's Elgarian epiphany began in 1990 when he joined Dr. Donald Hunt's choir at Worcester Cathedral as an Alto Lay Clerk. Dr. Hunt's inspired and devoted expertise in performances of works by Worcester's most famous musical son cast a life-long spell on Stephen that manifests itself in these beautiful performances with his Proteus Ensemble.
The third volume in the series Elgar from the Archives from SOMM Recordings includes two historic recordings conducted by Sir Adrian Boult: the oratorio The Kingdom, Op. 51 and the ever-popular Variations on an Original Theme 'Enigma,' Op. 36. These variations form an interesting comparison to the two acoustic versions from the well-received Vol 1 in this series [ARIADNE 5046], one conducted by the composer in 1920, the other by Sir Henry Wood in 1924. Again, these recordings are remastered by audio engineer Lani Spahr, whose work on Elgar from the Archives Vol 1 James Jolly, Editor in Chief of Gramophone Magazine, described as "astounding," adding that "thanks to Siva Oke's SOMM label, Spahr has an outlet for his truly revelatory work." Inspired by the remarks of one of his school teachers that the Apostles were poor men, young men, perhaps "no cleverer than some of you here," Elgar conceived the idea of a work depicting the Apostles as ordinary men reacting to extraordinary events. He envisioned a trilogy of oratorios consisting of The Apostles, Op. 49, The Kingdom, and an unrealized work, The Last Judgement. He made initial sketches for The Kingdom as early as 1882, when he was still serving as organist at St George's Church in Worcester. Following an orchestral Prelude, which introduces the main musical themes and sets the mood of the work, the oratorio is in five parts, each played without a break: I. In the Upper Room; II. At the Beautiful Gate; III. Pentecost; IV. The Sign of Healing; and V. The Upper Room. The Kingdom is written for four soloists, choir, and large orchestra-featuring, in this recording, Heather Harper, soprano (The Blessed Virgin); Helen Watts, contralto (Mary Magdalene); William Herbert, tenor (St. John); and Gordon Clinton, baritone (St. Peter), with the Croydon Philharmonic Society and BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sir Adrian Boult. This programme on 29 May, 1957 at the Royal Festival Hall was part of the centenary celebrations for Elgar's birth. Boult admired The Kingdom above all the other major choral works of Elgar, and his complete understanding of and identification with the work is shown in his expert pacing and observation of dynamics. On 29th February, 1940, about ten weeks before Nazi forces invaded The Netherlands, Boult conducted the Amsterdam Concertgebouw Orchestra in a concert broadcast from Hilversum by the Dutch public broadcasting association. The program concluded with Elgar's Enigma Variations, the work that helped to establish Elgar's growing reputation internationally. In a programme note, Elgar wrote, "This work, commenced in a spirit of humour & continued in deep seriousness, contains sketches of the composer's friends." This Dutch performance is one of Boult's finest interpretations of the work, and it has more than stood the test of it's 86 years.
Kyung Wha Chung - Beau Soir (Faure, Franck, Debussy, Elgar, works for violin & piano) The centrepiece of this French-themed recital by Kyung Wha Chung and Kevin Kenner is the splendid violin sonata by Cesar Franck. It is a work long associated with Chung, described by the Financial Times as "one of the greatest violinists of the last half-century". Newer to Chung's repertoire is Faure's Sonata No 1. As she told Strings magazine, each of the works constitutes "a whole portrait of life itself," and she drew a comparison with Monet's paintings: "The reflection of light has endless possibility. The same thing applies to the texture and the sound when you're playing. There are millions of sounds."
Daniel Barenboim and Decca Classics continue their acclaimed Elgar series, recording Sea Pictures again after four decades and paired with the symphonic poem Falstaff. Recorded live in the winter of 2019, the album features the Staatskapelle Berlin and mezzo Elina Garanca in her first recording of Sea Pictures.
a deeply felt, thoughtful and, where needed, highly dramatic interpretation of an indisputable masterpiece. (Gramophone) "orchestral textures were sensuously coloured, and the vast symphonic structure flawlessly paced and handled. The choral singing, thrilling in it's immediacy and clarity, can only be described as electrifying from start to finish" (The Guardian) "For Davis, Elgar is a European composer, and the links to Wagner are clear... Davis is the star: guiding shaping, enhancing the beauty and the flow." (The Times)
This recording of Elgar's 2nd Symphony has garnered lavish praise; Classic FM proclaimed it the most passionate and detailed account with the world-class playing of the LSO. BBC Radio 3 while nominating it the top budget choice, described it as being "Larger than life, but capturing every mood with humanity and tenderness". The Guardian and Sunday Times included it in their list of best releases of 2002 and the Penguin Guide chose to highlight the breathtaking gentleness, glorious brass and remarkable dynamic range.
a blaze from heaven descended on him while he was conducting this extremely good First Symphony. He sets a well-nigh perfect tempo for the march and follows with a really lively, excited allegro. Even better though, the playing captures that elusive vein of fantasy that is Elgar... moments of magic explain why Elgar wraps himself round our hearts... are all here in the beautifully balanced recording. Marriner knows where he is going and the final pages are superb. (Gramophone)
