RECORDING OF THE MONTH
Sir Edward ELGAR (1857-1934)
Choral works and part-songs
Go Song of Mine (1909) [4.23]
As torrents in summer (1896) [2.04]
O salutaris hostia (1887) [2.31]
My love dwelt in a northern land (1889) [4.11]
Ave verum corpus (1887) 2.50]
I sing the birth (1928) [3.51]
Love (1889) [2.23]
The Prince of Sleep (1925) [4.37]
Four Choral Songs, op. 53 (1907): There is Sweet Music [4.04]; Deep
in my soul [4.43]; O wild west wind [3.10]; Owls - an Epitaph
[3.00]
O Hearken Thou (1911) [3.51]
Ave Maria (1907) [2.31]
Ave maris stella (1907) [3.59]
Five Part Songs Opp 71-73 (1914): The Shower [2.29]; The Fountain
[3.38]; Death on the Hills [3.55]; Love’s Tempest
[3.02]; Serenade [2.03]
Give Unto the Lord (1914) [8.30]
The Rodolfus Choir/Ralph Allwood
rec. St Gabriel’s Church, Pimlico, London, January 2009
SIGNUM SIGCD 315 [75.47]
I first came across the Rodolfus Choir, under Ralph Allwood, when I reviewed,
for another publication, their 1993 Herald recording (HAVPCD 176). This consisted
of choral works by Pierre Villette and Arnold Bax including the latter’s
masterpiece Mater, ora filium,considered by Bax’s great
champion, Vernon Handley, to be amongst his best compositions. That
Herald recording impressed me mightily. Now, as then, the Choir is made up
of young singers, each of whom has been chosen from a large number of candidates
for their unusually high degree of vocal ability and musicianship. They have
toured extensively in the UK, Europe and, recently, in the USA; broadcast
frequently and made numerous recordings. Their director, Ralph Allwood, was
Director of Music at Eton College for 26 years and he is one of the UK’s
most experienced and accomplished choral conductors. With such impressive
credentials they could hardly fail here - and they don’t … far
from it!
The compositions here range from the late 1880s - including the blissful ‘My
love dwelt in a northern land’ - to the late 1920s with the lovely carol
‘I sing the birth’ sung mostly in unison with frequently intercepted
Alleluias.
Elgar’s part songs have been recorded quite often in recent years and
have been covered on this site so I do not propose to cover each and every
one of the 21 tracks on this generously-filled album. You do however get a
very good impression of the Rodolfus’s fine singing when you listen
to ‘There is sweet music’, the first of the great op. 53 songs,
composed in Rome at the time when the First Symphony was in gestation. This
beautiful song sets words by Tennyson in eight parts and is wondrously wrought
with the parts exquisitely contrasted and blended. Also composed in Rome,
two years later, is another heartfelt song, ‘Go song of mine’
with that thrillingly ecstatic high climax pitched by the women’s voices.
The other secular songs, not mentioned in this review, are reasonably well
known and all sung with technical skill and sensitivity so I will pass on
to the liturgical works. Some are familiar and popular, strongly lyrical and
deeply moving like ‘Ave verum corpus’, ‘O salutaris hostia’,
‘Ave Maria’ and ‘Ave maris stella’. Then there is
the reverent supplication that is ‘O Hearken thou’ and the most
substantial work on the album, the concluding ‘Give unto the Lord’,
a setting of Psalm 29, glorious, uplifting and powerful; and deeply affecting
as sung here.
The Rodolfus Choir shine strongly in these well-loved Elgar part-songs choral
works.
Ian Lace
The Rodolfus Choir shine strongly in these well-loved Elgar part-songs choral
works.
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