Catalogue # CHAN10726X

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This re-release of The Light of Life by Sir Edward Elgar forms\npart of the new Hickox Legacy commemorative series on Chandos\nRecords, leading up to (and continuing beyond) the fifth\nanniversary, in Nov 2013, of the conductor’s untimely death. The\nrecording is released on the Classic Chandos label at Mid\nPrice.

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The Light of Life, an oratorio for soprano, contralto, tenor,\nand baritone soloists, full choir and orchestra, is a lesser-known\nbut imposing work by the composer who brought us the mighty Dream\nof Gerontius. The story concerns the blind beggar whose sight\nChrist restored. The words are taken from the Gospel of St John,\nwith additions by the Reverend Edward Capel Cure.

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Elgar proposed to call this his first oratorio Lux Christi, but\nhis publishers persuaded him to provide an English title: as the\nwork was written with the 1896 Three Choirs Festival at Worchester\nin mind, the concern was that an Anglican cathedral festival might\ndetect a Roman Catholic bias… Elgar complied, and the work was\ngiven the more suitable title by which we know it today.

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Gramophone wrote of the disc: ‘Hickox’s superior Elgarian\ncredentials are immediately established in the glorious orchestral\n“Meditation”, where his conducting demonstrates a noble\nflexibility, sensitivity to dynamic nuance and feeling for climax\nthat are wholly beguiling… The LSO respond for their Associate\nConductor with playing that is both warm-hearted and alert; as\never, the London Symphony Chorus contribute to proceedings in\nexemplary, splendidly disciplined fashion.’ Hickox and the London\nSymphony Orchestra and Chorus were joined on this recording by the\nsoloists Judith Howarth, Linda Finnie, Arthur Davies, and John\nShirley-Quirk.

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