As a long-time Elgarian, I am very pleased that Channel and The 20th Century Song Foundation have embarked on a complete solo song edition. Elgar's choral/part songs seem already to be notching up more exposure and recordings, and now it is time to catch up with the more intimate Elgar of the solo songs.

In his early years, Elgar had to survive on producing miniatures, and there was a significant market for Victorian drawing room ballads - and later for concert songs. Although his choice of poetry was somewhat erratic, from 16th century verse to overblown amateur contemporary material, the music to which he set them is always characteristically rich and imaginative. In the early songs, one can hear already many of the fingerprints of later Elgarian style. While we already may treasure his great orchestral and choral works, it is Elgar sitting at the piano making music with his wife or friend that brings us to the composer's most intimate heart.

Those systematic collectors who require series discs to be programmed with complete opus numbers in chronological order will hate this series. Judging by the first instalment, there will be a varied concert-type programme on each, mixing songs into groups; in fact the programmes are being aired in a related public concert series.

There are two singers, English soprano Amanda Roocroft and baritone Konrad Jarnot, who studied in the Guildhall School of Music, and later with Fischer-Dieskau. The former accounts for his impeccable English and the latter for some aspects of his voice production. They share two song groups each as follows:

Amanda Roocroft - The Self-Banished / Oh Soft was the Song op.59 No.3 / In Moonlight / Pleading op.48 No.1 / There Are Seven That Pull the Thread / Twilight op.59 No.6

Konrad Jarnot - Sea Pictures / Sea Slumber-Song op.37 No.1 / In Haven - Capri op.37 No.2 / Sabbath Morning at Sea op.37 No.3 / Where Corals Lie op.37 No.4 / The Swimmer op.37 No.5

Amanda Roocroft - The Wind at Dawn / In the Dawn op.41 No.1 / Speak Music! op.41 No.2 / Dry Those Fair, Those Crystal Eyes / Always and Everywhere.

Konrad Jarnot - Like to the Damask Rose / Queen Mary's Song / A Song of Autumn / Come Gentle Night

'The Self-banished' is one of Elgar's earliest songs, written at the age of 18 and only recently unearthed. It is certainly accomplished and well worth including in recitals; one can hear that the youth had Schubert's Earl King in mind at the time of composition. But the largest complete work on the disc is the Sea Songs, gathered from scattered efforts at a time when Berlioz's Nuits d'Été was the only model for an orchestral song cycle. It comes from the period of Dream of Gerontius and the Enigma Variations in 1899, and was one of those works which established Elgar as a significant presence in English music.

Paralleling the orchestral version of Sea Songs, Elgar compiled a piano version which he performed a number of times with the statuesque mezzo Clara Butt (who on one occasion was said to have worn a mermaid's outfit!). Here we have the baritone version, which has also been recorded fairly recently on an Avie RBCD of solo songs, but rather disastrously with Elgar's own piano. With the peerless Baker/Barbirolli version imprinted in my brain, I was surprised to find that the piano version works surprisingly well. Indeed, it sounds like a different work in many respects, more intimate of course, but sounding quite appropriate in the more virile songs such as The Swimmer. Some of the tempi have to be a little faster than in the orchestral version with its larger scale and sustaining strings. Elgar's piano part is not a mere work-a-day reduction but a re-working in pianistic terms, and it works extremely well, only resorting to double octave tremolos in the bass in a few instances.

Pianist Reinild Mees displays a real accompanist's artistry in the Sea Songs and elsewhere in the recital. She recreates many orchestral impressions and copes superbly with Elgar's idiosyncratic piano writing - he being a string player.

Konrad Jarnot ceretainly has the measure of Elgar's long melodic lines in the Sea Songs. His soft singing in the quieter moments is full of expressive nuances, and he manages the climactic high notes of the noble perorations with secure ringing tone, although I rather prefer his more intimate voice. Jarnot does very well with his other songs, all sung with perfect diction, and brings the recital to a moving end with a poised and beautifully sustained cantilena in 'Come gentle night'.

Amanda Roocroft clearly loves these songs, and caresses them into colourful life, although I sometimes missed a real pianissimo and raptness. Her inwardness in William Butler Yeats' 'There are seven that pull the thread', however, is exquisite.

It is clear that both these artists have already absorbed the Elgar idiom, and no doubt that will develop with further volumes in the series. Their performances are supported and enhanced with a completely convincing and natural DSD recording from the Channel engineers, giving the piano a rich tone and a deep bass presence in splendid balance with the singers. It was, thank heavens, made in a Philips studio in Eindhoven rather than a church, and so provides a realistic extension to one's listening room.

Elgarians will want to add this to their collection, and even as a single disc it is attractive to lovers of the Romantic art-song.

Copyright © 2008 John Miller and HRAudio.net

Performance:

Sonics (Stereo):

Sonics (Multichannel):