Sea Pictures, song cycle for alto & orchestra (or piano), Op. 37
Polonia, symphonic prelude for orchestra, Op. 76
Pomp and Circumstance, marches (5) for orchestra, Op. 39
Here's a superb Elgar album that anyone can enjoy, perhaps even more fun than the other releases in the fine Elgar series recorded by the venerable Hallé Orchestra under Sir Mark Elder. The album contains familiar music in the form of the five Pomp and Circumstance Marches, which include the most famous of all (albeit only the last two minutes), the D major No. 1. It contains a genuine Elgar rarity, the tone poem Polonia, Op. 76, written in commemoration of the contributions of Polish troops in World War I. This patriotic ...
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Here's a superb Elgar album that anyone can enjoy, perhaps even more fun than the other releases in the fine Elgar series recorded by the venerable Hallé Orchestra under Sir Mark Elder. The album contains familiar music in the form of the five Pomp and Circumstance Marches, which include the most famous of all (albeit only the last two minutes), the D major No. 1. It contains a genuine Elgar rarity, the tone poem Polonia, Op. 76, written in commemoration of the contributions of Polish troops in World War I. This patriotic work quotes Chopin and Polish folk music, and it's a potboiler of the best kind, held together by march rhythms and entirely infectious, as long as you don't ask too much of it. The Pomp and Circumstance Marches are ideal, enthusiastic but never overdone. The Sea Pictures, Op. 37, are orchestral songs (with texts by five different poets) that deliver exactly what the title promises; the voice of mezzo-soprano Alice Coote is somehow maritime in its smoky, gentle quality, but it's...
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