Edward Elgar (1857-1934)
The Fountain, op. 71, n° 2
Serenade, op. 73, n° 2
Death on the Hills, op. 72
To her beneath whose stedfast star
Angelus (Tuscany), op. 56
Deep in my soul, op. 53, n° 2
Good Morrow
O wild West Wind!, op. 53, n° 3
My love dwelt in a Northern land, op. 18, n° 3
As torrents in summer, op. 30
They are at rest
Love, op. 18, n° 2
The Shower, op. 71, n° 1
There is sweet music, op. 53, n° 1
I sing the birth
Love’s Tempest, op. 73, n° 1
O happy eyes, op. 18, n° 1

Proteus Ensemble
Stephen Shellard, direction

Enregistrés dans l’abbaye de Pershore (Worcestershire, Angleterre), ces dix-sept chants polyphoniques ou chansons chorales (part-songs), dénomination que préférait le compositeur, révèlent une facette beaucoup plus discrète de l’auteur des "Variations Enigma" et des "Pomp and Circumstance Marches", œuvres abondamment jouées dans le monde entier. Les huit membres du Proteus Ensemble dirigés excellement par son fondateur Stephen Shellard mettent en valeur toutes les nuances de ces chants complexes d’exécution difficile allant des miniatures de salon à l’ensemble chorale quasi symphonique. En pénétrer l’alchimie musicale si typiquement anglaise requiert plusieurs écoutes attentives d’autant que l’auditeur non angliciste ne dispose d’aucune traduction en français des poèmes chantés. Aux grands noms de la poésie anglaise et américaine tels Tennyson dont le poème "There is sweet music" donne son titre à l’album, véritable morceau de bravoure pour les choristes ; Lord Byron et son touchant "Deep in my soul" ; Shelley avec le fougueux "O wild West Wind!" et l’Américain Longfellow avec "As torrents in summer", Elgar ajoute un texte signé de son épouse Caroline Alice ("O Happy Eyes") et trois textes d’origine russe dont l’impressionnant "Death on the Hills". (Gérard Martin)

There Is Sweet Music is the idyllic title of the first AVIE release by the eight-voice Proteus Ensemble and their conductor Stephen Shellard, which surveys a selection of relatively rare part-songs by Sir Edward Elgar. Elgar maintained his dedication to composing part-songs throughout his life and imbued each of them with an inimitable character. Like the composer’s celebrated “Enigma Variations”, his part-songs bear an array of inspirations and dedicatees, including his wife Caroline Alice who penned the poem of the album’s closer, “O Happy Eyes”, shortly after she and Elgar were married. This early work became a companion to the song “Love,” written eight years later and also dedicated to Caroline Alice. Elgar turned to famous poets and peers – Lord Byron for “Deep in my soul”, Percy Bysshe Shelley for “O wild West Wind!”, and Alfred Lord Tennyson whose poem “The Lotos-Eaters” provides the album’s title track. English translations of Russian poems lend themselves to “Death on the Hills”, “Love’s Tempest” and “Serenade”. Elgar frequently found inspiration in Italy, where he composed “Angelus’, a song dedicated to his close friend Alice Stuart Wortley whom he called “Windflower” and whose spirit is enshrined in his Violin Concerto. Stephen Shellard’s Elgarian epiphany began in 1990 when he joined Dr. Donald Hunt’s choir at Worcester Cathedral as an Alto Lay Clerk. Dr. Hunt’s inspired and devoted expertise in performances of works by Worcester’s most famous musical son cast a life-long spell on Stephen that manifests itself in these beautiful performances with his Proteus Ensemble.