Elgar / Howells / National Symphony Orchestra- Elegy (CD)
That there is indeed something of the ethereal, of the timeless, and of the indefinable pervading all of the music heard on this CD instantly calls into question our shared notions of what the term Elegy actually signifies. Here the listener will encounter none of the unutterable despair of, for example, Samuel Barber's great Adagio for Strings, or the tortured valediction of Richard Strauss' Metamorphosen, but rather an introspection and wistfulness of an altogether gentler sort. As the poet Thomas Gray expressed it in his Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard (1751), "Perhaps in this neglected spot is laid some heart once pregnant with celestial fire; Hands that the rod of empire might have swayed, or waked to ecstasy the living lyre
Tracklist:
- Invocation for Harp and Strings
- Elegy for Viola, String Quartet and String Orchestra Op. 15
- Serenade for Strings~I. Barcarolle
- Serenade for Strings~II. Romance
- Serenade for Strings~III. Elegy
- Canto Popolare "In Moonlight"
- Concerto Grosso~I. Intrada
- Concerto Grosso~II. Burlesca Ostinata
- Concerto Grosso~III. Sarabande
- Concerto Grosso~IV. Scherzo
- Concerto Grosso~V. March and Reprise
- Romance for String Orchestra Op. 11
- Five Variants of Dives and Lazarus
That there is indeed something of the ethereal, of the timeless, and of the indefinable pervading all of the music heard on this CD instantly calls into question our shared notions of what the term Elegy actually signifies. Here the listener will encounter none of the unutterable despair of, for example, Samuel Barber's great Adagio for Strings, or the tortured valediction of Richard Strauss' Metamorphosen, but rather an introspection and wistfulness of an altogether gentler sort. As the poet Thomas Gray expressed it in his Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard (1751), "Perhaps in this neglected spot is laid some heart once pregnant with celestial fire; Hands that the rod of empire might have swayed, or waked to ecstasy the living lyre
Tracklist:
- Invocation for Harp and Strings
- Elegy for Viola, String Quartet and String Orchestra Op. 15
- Serenade for Strings~I. Barcarolle
- Serenade for Strings~II. Romance
- Serenade for Strings~III. Elegy
- Canto Popolare "In Moonlight"
- Concerto Grosso~I. Intrada
- Concerto Grosso~II. Burlesca Ostinata
- Concerto Grosso~III. Sarabande
- Concerto Grosso~IV. Scherzo
- Concerto Grosso~V. March and Reprise
- Romance for String Orchestra Op. 11
- Five Variants of Dives and Lazarus