Elgar composed all the music on this record between 1889 and 1894, in the first five years of his marriage when he was obviously idyllically happy. there is a touching vernal freshness to the invention; and although the melancholy is there, it is lyrical and tender whereas after 1900 it became anguished. The Black Knight, his first big choral work and success, has never before been recorded, and is probably not well known even by devoted Elgarians who will, I believe, be impressed by its assurance. In a similar chivalric mood to Froissart, it makes its points with fewer diversions and the orchestra is handled even more masterfully. It is Elgar's Das klagende Lied—like Mahler's cantata, it tells of disastrous happenings at a medieval royal feast—and, though not on Mahler's ambitious scale, it still comes near to justifying the composer's description of it as a ''symphony for chorus and orchestra''. The Longfellow text is no great shakes, but it was what Elgar needed to flex his muscles for what lay not far ahead. It is fascinating to hear anticipations of Gerontius and the symphonies jostling passages of Elgar in his lighter vein.
Groves conducts a sympathetic and polished performance which lacks only an extra degree of animation in the first movement. The orchestra's playing is exuberant without being coarse and the recording, made in the Liverpool Philharmonic Hall, is well balanced so that the excellent choir's words are clear, and we also hear the delightful orchestral detail.
The Spanish Serenade is more Longfellow, inspiring Elgar to a real charmer, but even better are the two songs for women's voices to words by Alice Elgar, performed here in the 1903 and orchestration (they were written for two violins and piano). ''The Snow'' is a moving vision of love. This is an issue that extends our knowledge of Elgar.'