Elgar Coronation Ode

Soprano Teresa Cahill leads an excellent quartet of soloists in this recording of the Coronation Ode, and Sir Alexander Gibson draws pleasingly bold and brassy playing from the Scottish National Orchestra. The final movement, with its famous setting of Land of Hope and Glory, is especially satisfying here.

The music of Edward Elgar (1857-1934) is as unmissable in the British landscape as the red of the double-decker buses and telephone booths that appear on the cover of our new Indispensable. Of the five steps of "Pomp & Circumstance" (the title is borrowed from a passage from Shakespeare's "Othello"), the first (1901) remains the most famous. In the lively radiance of his introduction as in his trio imbued with pride, gravity and dignity all at the same time, Adrian Boult wears, in 1955, an elegant authority, an absolutely irresistible smirk - and what relief!

Glorious Majesty Music for English Kings and Queens is a 3CD collection of classical music written for English Kings and Queens through the ages. From Elizabeth I to Elizabeth II (via Queen Mary II, Queen Anne, George II, Edward VI, and George V) the collection includes the much-loved classics Handel s Zadok the Priest and Music for the Royal Fireworks, Parry s I was glad, Elgar s Coronation March, Walton s Crown Imperial and Orb and Sceptre, and not forgetting Elgar s arrangement of the National Anthem

From Arturo Toscanini and Sir John Barbirolli to Riccardo Muti and Antonio Pappano in our own time, Italian-heritage performers have often brought special qualities of sympathy and understanding to Edward Elgar’s (1857-1934) music. Now comes a new recording made in the ‘boot’ of southern Italy, lending Mediterranean warmth and passion to a trio of Elgarian masterpieces.