Description
SOMM Recordings' Elgar from the Archives series is creating a stir amongst Elgar lovers and historic performance enthusiasts alike, with Music Web International's Nick Barnard remarking, "SOMM's presentation is its usual excellent self."The series draws on the Elgar Archive of producer and master restoration engineer Lani Spahr, and SOMM is now pleased to release Volume 5, which features the oratorio The Apostles, Op. 49(1903) and the song cycle Sea Pictures, Op. 37 (1899). Since his youth, Edward Elgar had conceived of a large-scale work depicting the disciples of Jesus and their response to the extraordinary events they witnessed. When the Birmingham Triennial Music Festival commissioned him to write a new choral work, he began to compose an intended trilogy. While the third part remains only in sketches, the first two--The Kingdom and The Apostles--are monumental contributions to British oratorio. SOMM's May 2026 release of The Kingdom (ARIADNE 5048-2) featured Sir Adrian Boult conducting the BBC Symphony Orchestra as part of the 1957 centenary celebrations for Elgar's birth. This present live recording of The Apostles is from a BBC Home Service aircheck at the Royal Festival Hall, London, on 12 June of that year. This also features the BBC Symphony Orchestra, here conducted by Sir Malcolm Sargent--who, along with Boult and Sir John Barbirolli, was strongly associated with the promotion of Elgar's music in the years following World War II. As principal conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Sargent threw himself into celebrating the Elgar centenary, when the BBC broadcast all three of the major oratorios.In addition to The Dream of Gerontius, Sargent considered both The Apostles and The Kingdom to be masterpieces, which should have been much more widely known. About Sargent's 1957 performance of The Apostles, Stanley Bayliss wrote "... the closing pages are magnificent and give us something that cannot be found even in Gerontius. This was fully understood by Sir Malcolm Sargent, who was the hero of the evening." Included in this album is a first CD release, newly restored by Lani Spahr, of Elgar'sSea Picturesfor contralto and orchestra withGladys RipleyandGeorge Weldon conducting the then recently formedPhilharmonia Orchestra.This was recorded in 1946 for EMI.Elgar was no doubt one of Weldon's favourite composers. In 2008 SOMM first releasedtheSea Pictureswith Gladys Ripley and the London Symphony Orchestra (SOMMCD 073, George Weldon conducts Elgar). This was recorded in 1954 at EMI's Abbey Road and produced by the late Brian Culverhouse.
