The Longed-for Light: Elgar's Music in Wartime

"Here's a supremely enjoyable Elgar survey centred around a clutch of works composed during the Great War...Throughout, the BBC Concerto Orchestra respond with bright-eyed conviction and commendable polish for John Wilson, whose endearingly communicative, shapely and affectionate readings...hold their own...Elgarians should ceratinly lend an ear to this entreprising and rewarding Somm anthology"
(Gramophone Editor's Choice Jan 2013)

"Un Voix dans le désert, Carillon and Le Drapeau Belge are melodramas to wartime verse by the Belgian Emile Cammaerts, vigorously proclaimed by Callow, with a taut solo from Gritton halfway through the first. More interesting agitprop is the purely orchestral Polonia"
(Sunday Times)

The outbreak of the Great War caused Elgar much anguish and depression and the music composed during these years reflects his sorrow and deep patriotism.

Apart from Elgar's early Sursum Corda Op. 11 (composed in 1894), this disc takes us on a musical journey from shortly before the war began to the composer's last wartime orchestral work, The Sanguine Fan, a shaft of light during the darkest days of the war in 1917. The music on this disc, although not premiere recordings (they were originally recorded by the HMV label), this is the first modern recording not only of these works but also to provide a unique survey of Elgar's compositions of this time.

Performed by the BBC Concert Orchestra and conducted by John Wilson, this CD also includes Susan Gritton and the renowned actor Simon Callow who is the speaker on Le Drapeau Belge Op 79.