The major work on this disc is Elgar’s Fringes of the Fleet, a work written in 1917 that sets a collection of Rudyard Kipling’s poems of the same title. This is its first professional recording since 1917. Premiered at the London Coliseum on 11th June in the penultimate year of World War I, it had immediate success. However, after the death of Kipling’s son in action the poet forbade further performances and the work was eventually forgotten. The resurrection of Fringes is thanks to conductor Tom Higgins, who studied various manuscripts of the work and ‘prepared a performing edition, which stays faithful to the composer’s original intentions while observing some performance practices that were not always annotated at the time’. It is certainly a powerful and nostalgic piece, scored for four baritones and orchestra. It had five original movements plus one song (with words by Sir Gilbert Parker) that was added two months into the phenomenally successful run. The first two songs, The Lowestoft Boat and Fate’s Discovery, have an uplifting momentum to them. They are written essentially in strophic form, and from them it is easy to see why Fringes was used to help boost morale at that difficult time. Submarines however sees a dramatic shift in mood and has an incredibly dark feel - still powerful but in an entirely opposite way. Sweepers is the most evocative movement of the piece. Solo baritone Roderick Williams makes good use of his vocal agility in portraying feelings ranging from immense human courage to damning defiance. The final two movements Inside the Bar and Big Steamers are written for four unaccompanied baritones and give the work a poignant conclusion. Listen out too for Ireland’s The Soldier and Blow Out, You Bugles, again performed by Williams - this style of song suits his voice well. An achingly beautiful account of Elgar’s Elegy for Strings is among several other British gems included on the disc.

Reviewed by Dawn Cooke