Elgar: Cello Concerto & The Dream of Gerontius

This pioneering set of Gerontius has come up newly minted in these superbly engineered transfers taken from 78rpm masters. That only enhances the incandescence and fervour of the reading itself,... — Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010 More…

Catalogue No: SBT2025
Label: Testament

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October 2006

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Elgar: Cello Concerto in E minor, Op. 85

Paul Tortelier (cello)
Huddersfield Choral Society, Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra
Sir Malcolm Sargent

Elgar: The Dream of Gerontius, Op. 38

Heddle Nash - Gladys Ripley - Dennis Noble - Norman Walker
Huddersfield Choral Society, Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra
Sir Malcolm Sargent

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Reviews

2010

This pioneering set of Gerontius has come up newly minted in these superbly engineered transfers taken from 78rpm masters. That only enhances the incandescence and fervour of the reading itself, in virtually all respects the most convincing the work has received. Sargent's conducting, influenced by Elgar's, is direct, vital and urgently crafted with an inborn feeling for the work's ebb and flow and an overall picture that comprehends the piece's spiritual meaning while realising its dramatic leanness and force. Heddle Nash's Gerontius is unrivalled in its conviction and inwardness. He'd been singing the part since 1930, and by 1945 the work was in his being; he sang it from memory and had mastered every facet. 'Take me away' is like a searing cry of pain from the depth of the singer's soul. Gladys Ripley is a natural and communicative Angel, her flexible and appealing tone always a pleasure. The Liverpool Philharmonic lives up to its reputation at the time as the country's leading orchestra (in particular the sonorous string section), and the members of the Huddersfield Choral Society sing as if their lives depended on it.
Tortelier's Cello Concerto presents the Classical approach as compared with the Romantic one of du Pré, and is the best of Tortelier's readings of the work on disc, with his tone and phrasing at their firmest and most telling. A considered and unaffected reading among the best ever committed to disc.

Elgar: Cello Concerto & The Dream of Gerontius

2 CDs

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