Customer Reviews

Warren: The Legend of King Arthur

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

 

 

Elinor Remick Warren is one of America's hidden musical treasures. Most of her music is quite complex and demanding; don't even try to put it on as background music because you're going to have to really listen if you want to follow what's going on. Trust me though, it's worth the effort. "Legend of Arthur" is my favorite Warren recording. The Cracow Radio and TV chorus, despite their clunky name, has done a wonderful job, and of course the text is one of the best poems in the English language. Thomas Hampson is extraordinary as King Arthur, and as always he makes it sound easy. He somehow makes it seem perfectly natural that a mortally wounded king would spend his last moments singing. Buy this recording NOW!

Elinor Remick Warren's (1900-1991) birth and death years may coincide with those of Ernst Krenek, but stylistically Warren belonged to a previous generation. Her music, a fair amount of which is represented on disc, is firmly neo-romantic, tonal and harmonically conservative. There are plenty of soaring melodies in her music, however, many of which are at least on the verge of memorable, and the music is variegated and colorful. "The Legend of King Arthur" is billed as a choral symphony for tenor, baritone, chorus and orchestra, but is - as expected - a cantata and definitely not a symphony (there is little trace of any symphonic development, at least). It is written in two parts, divided by an intermezzo (allotted to part two in Cambria's presentation); the first depicting the final moments of the life of King Arthur, the second - more spiritually oriented - the time after his death.

The music is generally slow moving, noble and not entirely free of bombast, but it is well-crafted and many of the themes, especially in part two, are extremely fine, and it is colorfully scored (though the textures sometimes tend toward the heavy); despite a certain amount of grandiosity, Warren mostly avoids empty pomp. Structural coherence seems to have been less of a concern than detailing the episodes within the narrative, so anyone waiting for a grand symphonic argument will wait in vain - it also makes one wonder why Cambria allotted a single track to part 1 (34 minutes). The performances are pretty fine; the Polish Radio and Television Symphony Orchestra and Chorus of Cracow are not always ideally polished (pardon the really bad unintentional pun), but are generally better than adequate. The soloists are very good, however (tenor Lawrence Vincent is fine; baritone Thomas Hampson unsurprisingly excellent), and all in all (the sound is slightly muddy but ok) this is a work well worth hearing if not something that will ultimately set the world alight.

Elinor Remick Warren composed successfully for 75 years of the 20th century. When you hear The Legend of King Arthur, you start to understand why her career was one of the longest and most productive in American musical history. Her compositions do not sound like the work of a female composer. They have power and magnificence.