The Light of Life was Elgar’s first
foray into the world of oratorio as a composer though as an orchestral
musician - a violinist - he was well versed in the genre, not least
through playing in the orchestra for the Three Choirs Festivals. Indeed,
he composed
The Light of Life for the Worcester Three Choirs
Festival of 1896. This early oratorio is much shorter than
The Dream
of Gerontius and its two successors. Though there are some precursors
of the mastery Elgar was soon to attain you will not find in
The
Light of Life a nascent
Gerontius. Within quite a short space
of time - a mere four years - Elgar was to take a quantum leap in terms
of both compositional accomplishment and, let’s be honest, sheer
inspiration; both the
Enigma Variations and
The Dream of Gerontius
are works of genius, which
The Light of Life is not. I’ve
sung in several performances of
Light of Life and based on that
experience I heartily second the verdict of Jonathan Woolf, in his
review
of this present disc, that “At its best it’s resplendent
and moving, whilst at its less-than-best it can be earnest and rather
jog-trotting, and somewhat under-characterised too.” Notwithstanding
my great love of Elgar’s music, I feel the “less-than-best”
passages are in the majority.
That’s not to say, however, that
The Light of Life is not
worth hearing; far from it. It’s not only worth hearing in its
own right but also as an essential element in our understanding of Elgar
and his development as a composer.
For many years, until this Hickox recording came along, the work was
pretty well served on disc by the 1980 EMI reading by Sir Charles Groves.
Indeed, the reason I’ve not heard this Hickox recording before
is that I was perfectly happy with the Groves performance and I saw
no reason to add a second recording of the work to my collection. To
the best of my knowledge the Groves recording is no longer available
separately though it is included in EMI’s big boxed set,
Edward
Elgar - The Collector’s Edition (
review).
Before that it appeared in an EMI Elgar Choral Collection (
review)
and before that by itself on EMI CDM 7 64732 2 (long deleted but still
available from Amazon. Listening now to the Hickox recording in comparison
with Groves I think I was mistaken in not acquiring it earlier as it
has strengths in comparison to Sir Charles’ recording, albeit
there are aspects of the Groves recording that are preferable to this
Chandos version.
One clear advantage that Groves enjoys over Hickox is in the performances
of his female soloists. On every count I prefer Margaret Marshall and
Helen Watts to Hickox’s ladies. In the soprano solo, ‘Be
not extreme, O Lord’ I found that if I stopped following in the
vocal score then most of Judith Howarth’s words were very difficult
to discern. She offers committed full-toned singing but the vibrato
that she employs clouds her words. By compensation she’s dramatic
and commanding at the climax of the aria, “Lighten, O lighten
mine eyes, O Lord” (track 4 2:24). Turn to Margaret Marshall on
the Groves disc and you find much greater clarity of diction with no
sacrifice of tone. These comments hold true for the whole performance:
Miss Marshall is a clear winner.
So, too, is Helen Watts. The alto soloist acts mainly as the narrator.
To my ears Linda Finnie’s voice sounds rather heavy and I prefer
the somewhat more direct style - and sound - of Helen Watts in narrative
passages such as ‘And when He had thus spoken’ (track 7)
and ‘He went his way therefore’ (track 9). When we get to
the short aria, ‘Thou only hast the words of life’ (track
12) Miss Finnie sounds almost fulsome and her words tend to get swallowed
in rich tone and vibrato. By contrast Helen Watts is much more direct
in expression and clear of voice - or so it seems to me - yet her timbre
falls very pleasingly on the ear.
Honours are much more even when it comes to the men. Indeed, one of
the soloists, John Shirley-Quirk, is common to both recordings. Some
thirteen years separate the two versions and, as Jonathan Woolf justly
observes in his
review,
he was no longer at his peak by the time he made this second recording
- he was sixty-one by that time. That said, I don’t detect a significant
decline in his vocal powers as between the two recordings and his voice
is ideally suited to the noble music to which Elgar set Christ’s
words. That’s particularly true of the final solo, ‘I am
the Good Shepherd’ (track 16). Shirley-Quirk rises to the occasion
as nobly as he did for Groves, singing in his native Liverpool, back
in 1980.
Groves’ tenor is Robin Leggate, who retired as a principal at
the Royal Opera House only in 2011 after forty years with the company.
Possibly because he made his career in opera, which isn’t my usual
stomping ground, I don’t recall hearing him much during his career
but this performance suggests he was under-recorded. Arthur Davies,
his rival, has the bigger voice and sings very well and expressively,
making a ringing open-throated sound. He does the big, quasi-operatic
solo, ‘As a spirit didst Thou pass before mine eyes’ (track
10), very well. However, when I revisited Leggate’s performance
of this solo I found that he was far from put in the shade. His voice
falls pleasingly on the ear, as it does throughout the work. I don’t
think he makes quite as many expressive points in this big solo as Davies
does - though he makes all the ones that are in the score. However,
he seems to make his breath go a little bit further and I wonder if
that’s because he and Groves don’t slow down for expressive
points as often as do Davies and Hickox. I enjoyed Davies’ performance
of this aria - and, indeed, of the rest of the role - but Leggate is
a bit more naturally flowing in these pages and - I come back to a word
I’ve used of the two lady soloists - a bit more direct. Both tenors
do a fine job.
Groves’ choir and orchestra give him excellent singing and playing
but the LSO and their chorus are even finer for Hickox and they come
across vividly in a splendid Chandos recording which is much richer
and fuller than the EMI sound of 1980, though that recording still sounds
pretty well. I wouldn’t care to express a preference between the
two conductors. Both of them understand Elgar instinctively and both
conduct very well indeed. Interpretatively both versions are extremely
successful. Pressed to a choice, perhaps Hickox injects slightly more
dramatic fire on occasion.
On balance I’d say that if you already have the Groves recording
in your collection then you probably don’t need to upgrade to
Hickox unless you want two versions of
The Light of Life in your
collection - frankly, I don’t think it’s a piece of which
anyone other than committed Elgar collectors needs multiple versions.
However, if you haven’t got a recording of the work already then,
despite the caveats about the female soloists, Hickox’s fine performance
is the one to have and that’s a view I’d continue to express
if the Groves performance ever becomes available again as a single disc.
John Quinn
See also reviews by
Jonathan
Woolf and
Rob
Barnett
