Elgar - The Dream of Gerontius, The Music Makers

Our Price: £16.60 (£14.43 ex VAT)

Format: CD

Number of Discs: 2

Genre: Vocal/Choral

Artist(s): Richard Lewis, Janet Baker (mezzo-soprano), London Philharmonic Choir, London Philharmonic Orchestra

Conductor(s): Sir John Barbirolli, Sir Adrian Boult

Release Date: 6th September 2007

Great Recordings of the Century: ‘A distinguished series of beautifully presented reissues.’ (Gramophone)

‘EMI’s Great Recordings of the Century is exactly what it says: these classic interpretations warrant a place in everybody’s collection.’ (The Times)

The EMI Classics flagship mid-price series of reissues Great Recordings of the Century has proved exceptionally successful since its launch in 1998. The series has a high-quality and distinctive through-design, with original LP sleeves and the ART logo reproduced on the front covers and critical endorsements from the Gramophone on the back inlays. The substantial booklets offer newly commissioned and authoritative essays (in English, German & French) and, where appropriate, the sung texts/libretto (with translations).

A crucial element in maintaining the high standards achieved in Great Recordings of the Century is the work of EMI’s renowned team of engineers at Abbey Road Studios. Using the very latest technology, they make new transfers from the original materials (78s and analogue tape) and new remasterings (of both analogue and digital recordings).

This 1964 recording of The Dream of Gerontius, though made over four days at Christmas in a miserable and foggy Manchester, has long been the version of choice in round-up reviews, including BBC Radio 3's Building a Library. Besides the leading Gerontius of his day, Richard Lewis, and the tremendous doubled chorus, it established Janet Baker as a peerless Angel.

This new coupling presents another classic of Dame Janet’s early recording career, as soloist in The Music Makers, which she recorded precisely two years later under Sir Adrian Boult. Both these large-scale works now benefit from entirely new transfers and 24-but digital remastering.

In his booklet essay, ‘Barbirolli and Boult, Elgarian champions’, Lyndon Jenkins details Sir John Barbirolli’s long relationship with Gerontius and includes a number of memorable anecdotal quotes (‘You’re not bank clerks on a Sunday outing,’ ‘JB’ would tell recalcitrant choruses, ‘You’re souls sizzling in hell!’). The note concludes by appraising The Music Makers: in such works, ‘for richness of conception, nobility of sound and clarity of outline, Boult had few rivals’.