Kodaly and Elgar - The Music Makers

A premier recording of Kodaly's Ode to the Music Makers for chorus and orchestra is coupled with Elgar's The Music Makers for Chorus, Orchestra and Mezzo-soprano, plus Kodaly's A Summer Evening for orchestra. Inspired live performances recorded at St John's Smith Square, London in 2001 with the Oxford Orchestra da Camera, the Chorus of the Oxford Orchestra da Camera and soloist, Christina Wilson, conducted by Howard Williams.

Kodaly was 81 when he composed The Music Makers for, and dedicated to, Merton College Oxford, for the College's 700th anniversary in 1964. The beautiful orchestral tone-poem, A Summer Evening, was composed during 1929 and 1930. Apparently based on a much earlier work, the impetus for re-writing A Summer Evening came from Arturo Toscanini who premiered it in New York in April 1930.

Elgar's setting of The Music Makers was first heard in October 1912 at the Birmingham Festival. Elgar has accumulated the material over many years and quotes from his major works can be heard throughout the score.