Elgar: Choral Works (2006)

Anybody who loves the orchestral music of English composer Edward Elgar -- the brilliant Enigma Variations, the passionate Violin Concerto, the heartrending Cello Concerto, the magnificent symphonies, the spectacular overtures, and the virtuosic Bach and Handel transcriptions -- will sooner or later have to deal with his three sacred oratorios: "The Dream of Gerontius," "The Apostles," and "The Kingdom." Written for the Birmingham Festivals of 1900, 1903, and 1906, the works are, depending on taste, either Elgar's best and ... Read More

Anybody who loves the orchestral music of English composer Edward Elgar -- the brilliant Enigma Variations, the passionate Violin Concerto, the heartrending Cello Concerto, the magnificent symphonies, the spectacular overtures, and the virtuosic Bach and Handel transcriptions -- will sooner or later have to deal with his three sacred oratorios: "The Dream of Gerontius," "The Apostles," and "The Kingdom." Written for the Birmingham Festivals of 1900, 1903, and 1906, the works are, depending on taste, either Elgar's best and most characteristic works or his bombastic and most sentimental works.The answer, of course, is that they're both. Profoundly religious but not especially spiritual, Elgar's music is wholly sincere but essentially superficial. His skill as an orchestrator is as marvelous here as it is in his purely orchestral works, and his writing for vocal soloists and chorus is as wonderful as his writing for instrumental soloists with orchestra. And yet the intensely nostalgic tone of the music... Read Less