Artist: Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Howard Arman
Album: Edward Elgar: Partsongs – From the Bavarian Highlands
Genre: Classical
Release Date: 2021
Audio Format:: FLAC (tracks) 24 bit, 48 kHz
Duration: 01:05:35
Total Tracks: 20
Total Size: 644 MB

Tracklist:

01. Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Max Hanft & Howard Arman – From the Bavarian Highlands The Dance (03:41)
02. Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Max Hanft & Howard Arman – From the Bavarian Highlands False Love (03:40)
03. Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Max Hanft & Howard Arman – From the Bavarian Highlands Lullaby (03:17)
04. Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Max Hanft & Howard Arman – From the Bavarian Highlands Aspiration (03:13)
05. Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Max Hanft & Howard Arman – From the Bavarian Highlands On the Alm (03:33)
06. Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Max Hanft & Howard Arman – From the Bavarian Highlands The Marksmen (05:42)
07. Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Radoslaw Szulc, Julita Smoleń, Max Hanft & Howard Arman – The Snow (04:31)
08. Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Radoslaw Szulc, Julita Smoleń, Max Hanft & Howard Arman – Fly, Singing Bird (03:18)
09. Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks & Howard Arman – Yea, Cast Me from Heights (01:28)
10. Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks & Howard Arman – Whether I Find Thee (01:01)
11. Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks & Howard Arman – After Many a Dusty Mile (01:37)
12. Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks & Howard Arman – It’s oh! To Be a Wild Wind (00:58)
13. Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks & Howard Arman – Feasting I Watch (02:07)
14. Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks & Howard Arman – Go, Song of Mine (04:08)
15. Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Max Hanft & Howard Arman – As Torrents in Summer – Scenes from the Saga of King Olaf (02:11)
16. Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Radoslaw Szulc, Julita Smoleń, Max Hanft & Howard Arman – Spanish Serenade (03:43)
17. Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks & Howard Arman – The Reveille (06:02)
18. Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks & Howard Arman – They Are at Rest (03:33)
19. Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Max Hanft & Howard Arman – Weary Wind of the West (03:14)
20. Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks & Howard Arman – The Prince of Sleep (04:27)

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The Bavarian Radio Chorus conducted by Howard Arman sings Edward Elgar’s song cycle “From the Bavarian Highlands” in the first version for piano accompaniment on this CD from BR-KLASSIK in a live recording of a oncert on October 26, 2019 in the Herkulessaal of the Munich Residenz.

The remaining partsongs by Edward Elgar heard on this CD were recorded in the BR studio between July and September 2020.The British composer Edward Elgar wrote a great deal more than just his Pomp & Circumstance Marches: his highly diverse oeuvre encompasses symphonies, concertos, chamber works, piano music and numerous choral works (oratorios, cantatas and partsongs). On this release, partsongs by Elgar can be heard with and without accompaniment as part of a representative selection of live and studio recordings.

The album begins with the song cycle From the Bavarian Highlands, Op. 27; its six cheerful numbers were written while Elgar and his wife were on holiday in Garmisch in 1895. Alice Elgar had sketched verses from Bavarian folk melodies, and Upper Bavarian songs and dances can be heard in her husband’s settings. These were happy memories of carefree holidays in a region rich in music and full of fine landscapes. The Bavarian Radio Chorus, conducted by Howard Arman, sings the songs in their original version with piano accompaniment (the orchestral version came later).

As a composer of English-language choral songs, Elgar is still little-known on the European mainland; in the United Kingdom, however, the situation is very different. The country has long had a lively choral scene, focusing primarily on English music – from Purcell and Handel to Hubert Parry, Charles Villiers Stanford and Elgar, all the way to Benjamin Britten and today’s contemporary composers. The program on this release has been compiled and conducted by the Englishman Howard Arman, one of today’s most knowledgeable experts on British choral music and artistic director of the Bavarian Radio Chorus, and these recordings should do much to boost the popularity of this highly appealing music on the European mainland as well.