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Elgar: Scenes from the Saga of King Olaf new from Chandos

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Author Topic: Elgar: Scenes from the Saga of King Olaf new from Chandos  (Read 222 times)
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guest377
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« on: January 16, 2015, 09:08:41 pm »

some thing new from Chandos this month:  Elgar

CHSA 5149 Sir Edward Elgar (1857-1934): Scenes from the Saga of King Olaf* / The Banner of Saint George

Emily Birsan (soprano)* / Barry Banks (tenor)* / Alan Opie (baritone)*

Bergen Philharmonic Choir / Collegiûm Mûsicûm Choir / Edvard Grieg Kor

Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra / Sir Andrew Davis

After having recorded Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius (‘Recording of the Month’ in BBC Music), Sir Andrew Davis now turns to two of the composer’s most popular early choral works: Scenes from the Saga of King Olaf and The Banner of Saint George. The recording was made soon after a successful performance, featuring the same ‘excellent Bergen Philharmonic’ and ‘outstanding’ vocal forces: the ‘imposing’ baritone Alan Opie, the ‘high, incisive tenor’ Barry Banks, singing ‘fearlessly in some quite challenging passages’, and the American soprano Emily Birsan, who sang ‘with radiant delicacy’ (The Daily Telegraph).
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jimfin
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« Reply #1 on: January 18, 2015, 04:05:12 am »

Excellent news! So far as I know these are the first recordings since the HMV ones in the 1980s (when I was teenager buying things on LPs). I'm very fond of all these early Elgar choral works: dare we hope for The Black Knight and Caractacus soon?
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« Reply #2 on: January 18, 2015, 10:20:03 am »

I would think it probably unlikely, as Richard Hickox covered both of these lesser-known works for Chandos in very fine recordings -

   

King Olaf and The Banner of St George effectively complete the Chandos Elgar choral canon, and whilst I can see the potential market for a new Gerontius it's less easy to envisage rival recordings of the earlier choral works from the same company.

 :)
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« Reply #3 on: January 20, 2015, 10:56:16 am »

Oh you are right. After I posted I remembered the Caractacus recording, but I'd forgotten that the Black Knight had been done again. And of course Elder has done the post-1900 choral works.
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