Elgar: Sea Pictures / Falstaff

 
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EDWARD ELGAR
Elgar: Sea Pictures / Falstaff
Elīna Garanča (mezzo-soprano) / Staatskapelle Berlin, Daniel Barenboim

[ Decca Music Group / CD ]

Release Date: Friday 24 July 2020

Daniel Barenboim has recorded Sea Pictures again after 40 years. Featuring Latvian mezzo Elīna Garanča, this is her first recording of this seminal work. The album is the next in Barenboim's Elgar series for Decca Classics with the Staatskapelle Berlin, it was recorded live in winter of 2019.

Guardian ★★★★★ "The finest version of the work to appear on disc in many years... a remarkable achievement." (for Symphony No. 1)

"The Latvian mezzo leaves a most alluring impression, even if her delivery of the text falls fractionally short of the idiomatic, intuitively illuminating ideal. Both 'Sabbath Morning at Sea' and 'The Swimmer' in particular are endowed with an imposing, scena-like grandeur, the mood almost Wagnerian in its brooding intensity. Daniel Barenboim and his excellent Staatskapelle Berlin provide consistently poised, affectionate and flexible support" Gramophone

"Elgar's orchestral writing is richly rewarding, and these fine Berlin players respond to it with a will. The Latvian mezzo Garanca sings Sea Pictures with splendid fervour and lustrous tone." Sunday Times

"Though Garanča's diction can be indistinct and she doesn't match Baker's conviction in the fusty Victorian poetry that Elgar sets, her golden sound and warm, supple phrasing are still very appealing on their own terms" The Guardian

Elgar: Sea Pictures, Op. 37 - IV. Where Corals Lie