Elgar, Kelly, Gurney, Parry, Elkington

COMPOSERS: Elgar,Elkington,Gurney,Kelly,Parry
LABELS: Dutton
ALBUM TITLE: Spirit of England
PERFORMER: Susan Gritton (soprano), Andrew

Kennedy (tenor); BBC Symphony Chorus

& Orchestra/David Lloyd-Jones
CATALOGUE NO: CDLX 7172

This is a very remarkable collection



of music inspired by the waste and



futility of the First World War. If Elgar’s Spirit of England is the



major and most familiar item



(though in an unfamiliar form,



with two vocal soloists rather than



one), every piece here (the rest of



them virtually or totally unknown)



deserves more frequent hearing.



There’s Parry’s noble, darkly surging



Chivalry of the Sea in memory of the



sailors killed, drowned or vapourized



at Jutland. There’s a painfully,



intensely lyrical string-orchestra



Elegy ‘In Memoriam Rupert Brooke’



by FS Kelly, who was killed on



the Somme in 1916 but was in the



burial party that laid Brooke to rest



on Skyros in 1915. Ivor Gurney’s



War Elegy was composed during



the early stages of his post-war



manic-depressive illness and has



been rescued by dedicated editorial



work: richly Elgarian with a searing



climax. The score and parts of Lilian



Elkington’s profoundly affecting



Out of the Mist were discovered in a



Worthing bookshop in the 1980s:



she was a Bantock pupil who gave



up composition when she married



(a sadly familiar story). It evokes



the ship bearing the Unknown



Warrior’s body arriving at Dover in



November 1920 and is so strong it



ought to be on the programme of at



least one Remembrance Day concert



somewhere in the land, every year.



The only competition is in



the Elgar (the ever-dependable



Richard Hickox on EMI), but I urge



prospective buyers to try this disc



instead. Passionately performed,



it makes a vital act of restitution.