Customer Reviews

Starlight Express Suite / King Arthur Suite

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Elgar's 'Starlight Express' is filled with amazingly inspired melodies and imbued with the magical, other-worldly beauty of childhood innocence. I listen to this music on every Christmas day alongside Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker - just a right kind of music to let you forget all the meaningless stress associated with the whole business of being merry (often forcefully!) this time of year.

All these memorable songs and masterly orchestration suggest what might have happened to British classical music history, if Elgar had become a great opera composer. As in his great oratorios, it seems, the spirit of creative inspiration visited the composer most naturally, when his thoughts and imaginations were guided by literatures. Elgar had a rare gift of uniting the literary narratives with the musical ideas in such an intimate and inseparable way, that the essence of the story is communicated to listeners even without knowing the whole story! That is the case with the works like 'Light of Life', 'Caractacus', and 'Starlight Express.'

In this vivid Chandos stereo recording, Cynthia Glover has just a right kind of vibrant soprano voice with youthful quality for her role as a fairy, and John Lawrenson (baritone) gives warm and wonderfully imaginative performance of the songs of Organ-grinder. Bournemouth SO / George Hurt provides deeply sympathetic and expressive background.

Coupled with equally eloquent account of King Arthur Suite, this is a highly recommendable CD for anyone who loves Elgar's music.

Elgar's incidental music for Starlight Express has received a surprising number of recordings given its, shall we say, modest qualities. Even though it does contain several passages characteristic of the composer and manages to create some of the atmosphere (and at times style) of the Wand of Youth, inspiration runs desperately thin at times. The sung texts in two of the numbers give a clue to why - the texts are pretty inane and if they are representative of the play as a whole it isn't really a surprise why Elgar didn't really bother to come up with anything really inspired. There are some modestly charming numbers here, but nothing that really invites repeated listening.

The incidental music for King Arthur is among Elgar's latest works and contains some interesting and attractive material, even though it is rarely very inspired either. For those who know Anthony Payne's realization of "Elgar's third symphony" it will be interesting to hear several of the themes Payne used in its original context; otherwise, it is mostly for the committed Elgar devotee. The performances are satisfactory but there is just so much they can do with this music. The sound is clear. Overall, then, this is an issue for the Elgar enthusiast rather than the general listener, despite a few charming and attractive moments.

A good album, nothing great. OK as nice background music.