Help
Skip to main content
Basket 0 items, $0.00

US TARIFFS UPDATE | August 2025 | No impact expected on your Presto orders | Read full details

Elgar: King Olaf

Emily Birsan (soprano), Barry Banks (tenor), Alan Opie (baritone)

Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, Bergen Philharmonic Choir, Collegium Musicum Choir, Edvard Grieg Kor, Sir Andrew Davis

Elgar: King Olaf

Awards:

there's nothing stilted about Elgar's music: it crackles with confident vitality...the Norwegian choruses respond with crisp vigour and superb English diction, only faintly (and appropriately)...

BBC Music Magazine, April 20155 out of 5 stars

More reviews

Elgar: King Olaf

Emily Birsan (soprano), Barry Banks (tenor), Alan Opie (baritone)

Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, Bergen Philharmonic Choir, Collegium Musicum Choir, Edvard Grieg Kor, Sir Andrew Davis

Purchase product

2 SACDs

Hybrid Multi-channel

$39.75

In stock: usually despatched within 1 working day

Download

From$20.00

Download

Audio formats guide

96 kHz, 24 bit, FLAC/ALAC/WAV

$30.25

44.1 kHz, 16 bit, FLAC/ALAC/WAV

$24.00

320 kbps, MP3

$20.00

This release includes a digital booklet

Stream now Hi-RES 96 kHz, 24 bit
Free 30 day trial

Awards:

there's nothing stilted about Elgar's music: it crackles with confident vitality...the Norwegian choruses respond with crisp vigour and superb English diction, only faintly (and appropriately)...

BBC Music Magazine, April 20155 out of 5 stars

More reviews

About

After having recorded Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius (‘Recording of the Month’ in BBC Music), Sir Andrew Davis now turns to two of the composer’s most popular early choral works: Scenes from the Saga of King Olaf and The Banner of Saint George. The recording was made soon after a successful performance, featuring the same ‘excellent Bergen Philharmonic’ and ‘outstanding’ vocal forces: the ‘imposing’ baritone Alan Opie, the ‘high, incisive tenor’ Barry Banks, singing ‘fearlessly in some quite challenging passages’, and the American soprano Emily Birsan, who sang ‘with radiant delicacy’ (The Daily Telegraph).

Dating from his years of ‘apprenticeship’, the two works shaped Elgar’s reputation as a leading orchestrator and most popular British composer of his time. The secular cantata Scenes from the Saga of King Olaf derives from Longfellow’s epic poem about Olaf Tryggvason, who became King of Norway in 995. While the text was heavily adapted and augmented, the use of sophisticated compositional techniques, such as extensive motivic work, resulted in music of great power and solemnity.

The ballad The Banner of Saint George is based on the story of Saint George of Cappadocia, as related by the Bristol poet Shapcott Wensley. It was commissioned by Britain’s leading publisher, Novello, and composed in only one month in 1896. Elgar overcame the prescriptive nature of the words and produced a work of lasting charm, the music rising above the material to create atmosphere, momentum, and colour.

  • Release date: 2nd Feb 2015
  • Label: Chandos
  • Catalogue number: CHSA5149(2)
  • Length: 1 hour 52 minutes

Contents and tracklist

Elgar: Scenes from the Saga of King Olaf, Op. 30, Introduction
Work length4:04
There is a wondrous book (Chorus, Bass, Soprano, Tenor)
Track length3:07
I. Summon now the God of Thunder (Bass)
Track length0:57
Elgar: Scenes from the Saga of King Olaf, Op. 30, The Challenge of Thor
Work length4:01
II. Chorus. 'I am the God Thor'. Moderato - Molto maestoso
Track length4:01
Elgar: Scenes from the Saga of King Olaf, Op. 30, King Olaf's Return
Work length7:22
III. And King Olaf heard the cry (Tenor)
Track length6:44
IV. Tell how Olaf bore the Cross (Bass)
Track length0:38
Elgar: Scenes from the Saga of King Olaf, Op. 30, The Conversion
Work length17:26
V. King Olaf's prows at Nidaros (Chorus)
Track length3:07
V. Behold me, my people, and answer and say (Tenor, Bass, Chorus)
Track length4:58
V. As leap the lights of winter (Bass, Chorus)
Track length3:02
V. Then o'er the blood-stained Horg-stone (Tenor, Chorus)
Track length5:35
VI. Now the child of Ironbeard dead (Bass)
Track length0:44
Elgar: Scenes from the Saga of King Olaf, Op. 30, Gudrun
Work length6:55
VII. On King Olaf's bridal night (Soprano, Tenor, Chorus)
Track length6:07
VIII. How the Wraith of Odin old (Bass)
Track length0:48
Elgar: Scenes from the Saga of King Olaf, Op. 30, The Wraith of Odin
Work length6:26
IX. The guests were loud, the ale was strong (Chorus)
Track length5:43
X. Sisters, sing ye now the song (Bass)
Track length0:43
Elgar: Scenes from the Saga of King Olaf, Op. 30, Sigrid
Work length7:33
XI. Sigrid sits in her high abode (Chorus)
Track length2:23
XI. Sigrid, hail! with royal hand (Tenor, Soprano, Chorus)
Track length4:29
XII. Hark! she flies from Wendeland forth (Bass)
Track length0:41
Elgar: Scenes from the Saga of King Olaf, Op. 30, Thyri
Work length14:46
XIII. A little bird in the air (Chorus)
Track length4:48
XIV. The gray land breaks to lively green (Soprano)
Track length2:19
XIV. Thyri, my beloved (Tenor, Soprano)
Track length6:09
XV. After Queen Gunhild's death (Chorus)
Track length1:30
Elgar: Scenes from the Saga of King Olaf, Op. 30, The Death of Olaf
Work length6:41
XVI. King Olaf's dragons take the sea (Chorus)
Track length6:41
Elgar: Scenes from the Saga of King Olaf, Op. 30, Epilogue
Work length9:36
XVII. In the convent of Drontheim (Chorus)
Track length1:29
XVIII. It is accepted (Soprano, Tenor, Bass, Chorus)
Track length3:19
XIX. Stronger than steel (Soprano, Tenor, Bass, Chorus)
Track length4:48
Elgar: The Banner of Saint George, Op. 33, Scene 1: Within Sylenë's walls no sound is heard
Work length2:41
Elgar: The Banner of Saint George, Op. 33, Scene 1: The women of Sylenë rend their hair
Work length1:37
Elgar: The Banner of Saint George, Op. 33, Scene 1: Forth from the palace, beautiful as day
Work length3:18
Elgar: The Banner of Saint George, Op. 33, Scene 1: O calm your hearts, she cries, O still your fears
Work length3:12
Elgar: The Banner of Saint George, Op. 33, Scene 2: Without a fear beside the dragon's tarn
Work length2:46
Elgar: The Banner of Saint George, Op. 33, Scene 2: Hark! 'tis the ringing hoof of steed
Work length2:38
Elgar: The Banner of Saint George, Op. 33, Scene 2: Loud cry the people, Hate! the dragon comes!
Work length5:25
Elgar: The Banner of Saint George, Op. 33, Epilogue: It comes from the misty ages
Work length5:33

Spotlight on this release

Awards and reviews

  • Presto Recording of the Week
    26th January 2015
  • Sunday Times
    2015
    Albums of the Year
  • BBC Music Magazine
    April 2015
    Choral & Song Choice
  • Presto Recordings of the Year
    Finalist 2015

April 2015

there's nothing stilted about Elgar's music: it crackles with confident vitality...the Norwegian choruses respond with crisp vigour and superb English diction, only faintly (and appropriately) Scandinavian-tinged. Davis's expansive conducting and the excellent Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra bring out Elgar's vivid orchestral textures
5 out of 5 stars

May 2015

the combined Norwegian choirs sing in faultless English, while Davis leads the Bergen Symphony Orchestra with unerring sensitivity and nuanced conducting
5 out of 5 stars

May 2015

It is good to have such a fine and experienced Elgarian as Andrew Davis to conduct this performance with the benefit of hindsight, as it were, recognising Elgar's emergent greatness from long experience of where it was to lead him. Davis can fasten upon the glimpses of genius and relish them, while also understanding what there is of value when Elgar is still resting upon the more conventional manner out of which he was formed.

February 2015

What a nice idea it was to have a Norwegian choir and orchestra performing English music about a Norse hero...The combined Norwegian choirs sing very well indeed in both works…[and] the Bergen Philharmonic plays with verve and distinction. Sir Andrew Davis…is just the man for these assignments.

26th January 2015

I suppose it's appropriate that this Norse legend should be recorded by the Bergen Philharmonic, and under the expert guidance of ardent Elgarian Andrew Davis, they and the combined Norwegian choirs seem effortlessly at home with Elgar's music...if you're a fan of Elgar but haven't yet explored some of the choral works that are somewhat off the beaten track, then this is an ideal disc, with enthusiastically engaging performances from everyone.
James Longstaffe

15th February 2015

King Olaf is a folk-tale narrative about the Norwegian Olaf Tryggvason, in the tradition of Mahler’s Das Klagende Lied or Schoenberg’s Gurrelieder, and it is splendidly performed by Davis’s Bergen forces. The soloists, Emily Birsan, Barry Banks and Alan Opie, all make positive contributions.

5th February 2015

King Olaf has been recorded in full once before, in the 1980s...Fine though that version is, Davis’s is better: it has a dramatic sweep and concern for detail that you don’t get from Handley. The Bergen orchestra and choir play and sing Elgar as though it were part of their regular repertoire, while the soloists...all cope well with what is sometimes strenuous vocal writing.
4 out of 5 stars

8th February 2015

The Bergen orchestra plays with a keen ear for colour and dramatic flux, and the chorus...makes the narrative live and breathe in suppleness, expressive sensitivity and lusty power...three fine soloists...carry the story with great distinction, subtlety and immediacy of impact.
4 out of 5 stars
View download progress

Download queue