Sir Edward Elgar (1857-1934)
The Reeds by Severn Side
Joshua Ryan (organ)
Chapel Choir of the Royal Hospital Chelsea/William Vann
rec. 2021, Holy Trinity Church, Sloane Square, London, UK
Texts included
SOMM RECORDINGS SOMMCD278 [80]
Small choral works, either unaccompanied or with organ, are not what you immediately associate with Edward Elgar. Yet throughout his career he wrote an enormous amount of such music, as this cunningly devised CD’s programme demonstrates. It takes us all the way from pieces written in his mid-teens to the Memorial Ode for Queen Alexandra of 1932, two years before his death.
The choir is the excellent Chapel Choir of the Royal Hospital Chelsea, ‘home of the iconic [!] Chelsea Pensioners’ as the booklet breathlessly tells us. The solos which crop up in many of the numbers are taken by members of the choir, and I find it a great pity that the soloists are not credited by name, because they are so well done, particularly the female ones.
We kick off with three tracks containing very early compositions – maybe ‘arrangements’ would be a better description. The ‘Gloria’ is based on Mozart’s Violin Sonata K547, while the title of the ‘Credo’ on track 2 is self-explanatory. It’s all stolen, of course, but I have to say that the Allegretto of Beethoven’s 7th Symphony works remarkably well in this setting. These pieces were all part of Elgar’s studies and development; as is well-known, he was almost completely self-taught in composition, and made himself study the music of the classical ‘greats’ in order to learn about form, orchestration, counterpoint and so forth.
So he was as a result a late developer, and it’s strange to see that by 1887, Elgar, now aged thirty, had only just reached his opus 2. But the three exquisite motets of that opus are subtle indications of the achievements that were to come. The first, ‘Jesu, word of God incarnate’ is probably better known with its Latin text, ‘Ave verum corpus’; either way, it has a melody that is, quite simply, one of the most beautiful that Elgar wrote – high praise indeed, I know, but entirely justified, and the other op. 2 motets are of the same quality.
There are some mature masterpieces here too. ‘Give unto the Lord’ is a kind of apotheosis of the Victorian anthem, a thrilling piece for choirs to sing, and a sweeping musical statement. ‘There is Sweet Music’ veers daringly between two keys, while ‘I Sing the Birth’ is remarkable for its simplicity and modal character; it could almost be early Britten.
The last two tracks, containing ‘official’ compositions, one for George V and the other a memorial for the king’s wife Queen Alexandra, are pallid by comparison with much of the other music here, but are nevertheless correctly place historically to complete this satisfying anthology.
Gwyn Parry-Jones
Previous reviews: John France ~ John Quinn
Contents
Gloria (1872)
Credo on Themes from Symphonies 5,7 and 9 by Beethoven (completed James Olsen) (1873)
Hymn Tune in F major (Drakes Broughton): ‘Hear Thy children, gentle Jesus’ (1878)
O Salutaris Hostia in F major (1880)
Jesu, Word of God incarnate, op. 2 no.1 (1887)
Jesu, Lord of Life and Glory, op. 2 no.2 (1887)
Jesu, Meek and Lowly, op.2 no.3 (1887)
As Torrents in Summer (Scene from the Saga of King Olaf) (1896)
There is Sweet Music, op. 53 no.1 (1908)
Psalm 68 (1909)
Angelus (Tuscany) op. 56 no.1 (1909)
They are at rest (1909)
Intende voci orationis meae (O Hearken Thou) op. 64 (1911)
Give unto the Lord (Psalm 29) op. 74a (1914)
Fear not, O Land (1914)
I Sing the Birth (1928)
Good Morrow (A simple carol for His Majesty’s happy recovery) (1929)
Queen Alexandra’s Memorial Ode (So many true princesses who have gone) (1932)
