Rodolfus Choir, Ralph Allwood

SIGNUM SIGCD 315 75’47

The regular performance of Elgar’s major works tends to overlook the quality of his less-familiar pieces, and in particular these small scale works for unaccompanied choir. The real value of this CD comes not only in the quality of the singing but the details essay in the booklet by Alastair Sampson which sets the works in context, enabling us easily to link them to works we already know well.

A few will be known already to church singers. O salutaris hostia and Ave, verum corpus are familiar parts of the liturgy but the Choral Songs Op53 and the Part Songs Op 71 deserve far wider respect for the sensitivity of their settings. Two late items are also included, I sing the birth from 1928 which as a carol should be far more familiar, and the 1925 setting of the melancholic The Prince of Sleep.

The Rodolfus Choir impress throughout with the dignity of their approach and the gentle intensity of their ensemble singing. BH