Channel Classics: Edward Elgar — Complete Songs for Voice and Piano, Vol. 1 (Hybrid SACD)

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Product Details:

• Product Type: Hybrid SACD (Super Audio CD)
• Brand / Label: Channel Classics
• Composer: Sir Edward Elgar (1857–1934)
• Performers: Amanda Roocroft (soprano), Konrad Jarnot (baritone), Reinild Mees (piano)
• Catalog Number: CCS SA 27507
• UPC: 723385275077
• Release Year: 2007
• Genre: Classical
• Style: English art song, vocal recital, Late Romantic

Product Features

• Format: Hybrid SACD — plays on all CD players
• Discs: 1
• Tracks: 20
• Total runtime: 64:11
• Audio: DSD, Stereo + Multichannel Surround 5.0
• Made in Austria
• Condition: Factory Sealed (New)

Overview

Elgar is remembered for the symphonies, the cello concerto and "Land of Hope and Glory," but he wrote songs his whole life, and this is the first volume of a project to record all of them. It's a side of him most listeners never meet: intimate, unguarded, sometimes melancholy in a way the big public works rarely allow.

The centerpiece is Sea Pictures, the 1899 cycle Elgar orchestrated for contralto and is usually heard with full orchestra — here baritone Konrad Jarnot sings it in the original voice-and-piano version, which strips it back to the bone and lets the words carry. Amanda Roocroft takes the solo songs, from the early "The Self-Banished" of 1875 to the late Op. 59 settings, tracing how Elgar's vocal writing deepened across thirty years.

Reinild Mees is the connecting thread, partnering both singers with the kind of attention English song demands. Channel Classics records it in DSD, and the hybrid SACD layer gives the voices real presence and air. A rewarding first volume for Elgar enthusiasts and English-song collectors alike, and it plays on any standard CD player.

Interesting Facts

• This is Volume 1 of Channel Classics' project to record Elgar's complete songs for voice and piano, drawing on settings written across nearly his entire career.
• Sea Pictures, Op. 37 (1899) is far better known in its orchestral version for contralto; this disc presents the original voice-and-piano scoring, sung by baritone Konrad Jarnot.
• The earliest song here, "The Self-Banished," dates from 1875, when Elgar was still a teenager working in his native Worcester.
• The recording was made in DSD and issued as a hybrid SACD with both stereo and 5.0 surround layers, playable on ordinary CD players.
• The project was supported by the 20th Century Song Foundation, reflecting its scholarly, complete-edition ambition.
• Soprano Amanda Roocroft was one of the most celebrated British lyric voices of her generation, widely admired in both opera and song.

Track Listing

Amanda Roocroft (soprano)

1. The Self-Banished (1875) — 3:54
2. Oh, Soft was the Song, Op. 59 No. 3 (1909) — 1:34
3. In Moonlight (1904) — 2:08
4. Pleading, Op. 48 No. 1 (1908) — 2:16
5. There Are Seven That Pull the Thread (1901) — 2:11
6. Twilight, Op. 59 No. 6 (1909) — 2:39

Konrad Jarnot (baritone) — Sea Pictures (1899)

1. Sea Slumber-Song, Op. 37 No. 1 — 5:12
2. In Haven (Capri), Op. 37 No. 2 — 1:35
3. Sabbath Morning at Sea, Op. 37 No. 3 — 5:28
4. Where Corals Lie, Op. 37 No. 4 — 3:26
5. The Swimmer, Op. 37 No. 5 — 6:17

Amanda Roocroft (soprano)

1. The Wind at Dawn (1888) — 2:56
2. In the Dawn, Op. 41 No. 1 (1902) — 2:25
3. Speak, Music!, Op. 41 No. 2 (1902) — 2:27
4. Dry Those Fair, Those Crystal Eyes (1899) — 1:30
5. Always and Everywhere (1901) — 3:12

Konrad Jarnot (baritone)

1. Like to the Damask Rose (1892) — 3:38
2. Queen Mary's Song (1887) — 3:32
3. A Song of Autumn (1892) — 3:04
4. Come, Gentle Night (1901) — 3:04

Publishers

Released 2007 by Channel Classics Records bv, the Netherlands. Recorded in DSD; hybrid SACD made in Austria. Project supported by the 20th Century Song Foundation.

Have this volume? A short review helps other Elgar and English-song collectors.