Search - E. Elgar, Christopher Robinson, Cambridge University Chamber Choir :: Elgar: Part-Songs

Elgar Could Write 'Em -- Part-Songs, That Is

J Scott Morrison | Middlebury VT, USA | 03/29/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Elgar came of age musically at the precise moment that the English choral festival movement was at its height, and although most music-lovers don't associate his name with choral music when they first think of him, he wrote some exceedingly lovely things, twenty of which are collected here in fine performances by the Cambridge University Chamber Choir under the direction of Christopher Robinson. Nothing will ever replace one of my favorite choral CDs from The Cambridge Singers under John Rutter There Is Sweet Music: English Choral Songs 1890-1950 containing two of Elgar's best: 'There is Sweet Music' and 'My Love Dwelt in a Northern Land'. But this one goes deeper into the Elgar oeuvre and is very much worth hearing. Not only are there fine performances of the two part-songs mentioned above -- 'There is Sweet Music', that bitonal marvel, is given a slightly lighter, faster but altogether effective reading on this CD -- but there are marvelous performances of, for instance, Elgar's oddest song, the hyper-chromatic 'The Owl', the exuberant 'The Fountain', and the ecstatically melodic 'As Torrents in Summer' (from his cantata, 'The Saga of King Olaf', to words by Longfellow).



I had never heard some of these songs before and was particularly touched by 'Death on the Hills', a mystical Erlkönig-like evocation of the death-struggle, and by the utterly gorgeous harmonies of 'Love's Tempest' and 'Serenade'.



The six songs of 'Scenes from the Bavarian Highlands' was written to words by Elgar's wife, Alice, and inspired by an 1895 trip to Bavaria where the Elgars witnessed folk-dancing and -singing that delighted them. They are generally light-hearted and in triple time; not surprisingly they are reminiscent of Brahms's Liebeslieder Waltzes. All the songs here are a cappella with the exception of these latter settings which are sensitively accompanied by pianist Iain Farrington.



The booklet notes by Geoffrey Hodgkins are more than usually informative and full texts are provided. Sound is fine but not outstanding. Recommended for those interested to explore further Elgar's undoubted abilities to write memorable choral music.



Scott Morrison"