This disc of Elgar's choral music recorded in 1997 and 1999 is one of the last recordings conductor Richard Marlow made with the Trinity College Choir, Cambridge, before retiring, and, thankfully, it's as sweet as honey and even more nourishing. With the glaring exception of his well-loved oratorio The Dream of Gerontius and, of course, Land of Hope and Glory, Elgar's choral music is relatively obscure, but the 15 works on this disc can be considered as representative of the composer's style as his better known Enigma ...
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This disc of Elgar's choral music recorded in 1997 and 1999 is one of the last recordings conductor Richard Marlow made with the Trinity College Choir, Cambridge, before retiring, and, thankfully, it's as sweet as honey and even more nourishing. With the glaring exception of his well-loved oratorio The Dream of Gerontius and, of course, Land of Hope and Glory, Elgar's choral music is relatively obscure, but the 15 works on this disc can be considered as representative of the composer's style as his better known Enigma Variations or Violin Concerto. There is a mood of deep spirituality throughout, and the level of craft shows Elgar to have been a highly skilled and expressive choral composer. Marlow and the men and boys of Cambridge turn in performances that meet the music technical requirements and surpass the music's interpretive demands. As always with this fine choir under Marlow, the balances are ideal, the articulation clear, the pronunciation clean, the intonation solid, and the ensemble smoothly...
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