The Hallé’s latest CD is a major addition to their highly acclaimed ‘Elgar Edition’ series.

The studio recordings took place days after the music was performed live at Manchester’s Bridgewater Hall.

This is the first time in a decade that this music has been recorded, and the different works perfectly illustrate the different aspects of Elgar’s personality. Froissart shows him to be extrovert and brilliant – and strikingly beautiful. Dream Children are tender and moving, and superbly inventive.

Each Hallé disc includes a musical rarity, something particularly special. Here is Bach as heard through Elgar’s eyes and ears. Elgar said, ‘I wanted to show how gorgeous and great and brilliant Bach would have made it sound if he had our means.’

Based on Arthur O’Shaughnessy’s ode, The Music Makers is unique amongst Elgar’s compositions. It is packed with quotations from other works, especially Enigma, but stands alone as a dramatic, disturbing picture of the loneliness of the artist. He wrote, ‘I have written out my soul in the Violin Concerto, Symphony No.2 and the Ode’ and when you hear it, you believe him.

Conductor
Sir Mark Elder

Soloists/Artists
Jane Irwin, Mezzo-soprano
James Burton, Choral Director

Chorus
Hallé Choir

Catalogue number CD HLL 7509