Sunday Afternoon at the Opera - Elgar: King Olaf, The Banner of St. George

Sunday Afternoon at the Opera host Keith Brown writes:

Before the Enigma Variations for orchestra (1899) made him famous, Sir Edward Elgar composed a series of large-scale dramatic cantatas of very high quality. None of these works are at all well known today. Recordings of them do exist, however, which I have drawn upon for broadcast. There's Caractacus (1898), for instance, which sets forth the legend about the military leader of those ancient Britons who held out against Roman rule. The EMI Classics release of Caractacus (Sir Charles Groves/Royal Liverpool Philharmonic) went over the air on Sunday, May 10, 2010. A similar work is Scenes from the Saga of King Olaf (1896), a setting of verse by the nineteenth century American poet, Longfellow. This cantata is scored for three vocal soloists, chorus and orchestra. King of Norway, Olaf Tryggvason (c. 950-1000) converted his Viking nation to Christianity at swordpoint. Elgar wrote King Olaf on commission for the North Staffordshire Music Festival. King Olaf has been recorded only once before in 1986 for EMI. The UK classical label Chandos has issued a new recording, made in Norway in 2014. British conductor Andrew Davis leads the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, Edvard Grieg Chorus and Collegium Musicum Choir. The three vocal soloists are Brits, too.

Piggybacked on the second of two Chandos CD's is Elgar's patriotic "ballad" for chorus and orchestra The Banner of Saint George (1897). Written, again on commission, in celebration of Queen Victoria's Jubilee year of reign, it gives us a little medieval romance about the sainted knight who slays the dragon and rescues the fair damsels from being sacrificed to the monster. Elgar brings his musical treatment of a rather overwrought text to a stirring conclusion in praise of empire and the Union Jack, the nation's banner. Again, it's Davis directing the Bergen Philharmonic, Grieg Chorus, and Collegium Musicum. Regular listeners to this program may remember when I broadcast The Banner of St. George as additional programming on Easter Sunday, 2015 following the feature of the afternoon, Elgar's oratorio, The Dream of Gerontius (1900).