MARBECKS COLLECTABLE: Elgar: A Self Portrait: The Music Makers / Dream Children / Froissart / etc

The Hallé's latest CD is a major addition to their highly acclaimed 'Elgar Edition' series. The studio recordings took place days after the music was performed live at Manchester's Bridgewater Hall. 'Mark Elder further expounded his Elgar credentials by conducting a superb performance' Sunday Telegraph 'Elder, an inspired Elgarian who has a special relationship with this music' The Independent

· This is the first time in a decade that this music has been recorded, and the different works perfectly illustrate the different aspects of Elgar's personality. Froissart shows him to be extrovert and brilliant - and strikingly beautiful. Dream Children are tender and moving, and superbly inventive.

· Each Hallé disc includes a musical rarity, something particularly special. Here is Bach as heard through Elgar's eyes and ears. Elgar said 'I wanted to show how gorgeous and great and brilliant Bach would have made it sound if he had our means'.

· Based on Arthur O'Shaughnessy's ode, The Music Makers is unique amongst Elgar's compositions. It is packed with quotations from other works, especially Enigma, but stands alone as a dramatic, disturbing picture of the loneliness of the artist. He wrote 'I have written out my soul in the Violin Concerto, Symphony No2 and the Ode' and when you hear it, you believe him. 'The Orchestra's playing and the Hallé Choir's singing blazed with conviction and Jane Irwin was in rich voice as the mezzo soloist.' The Sunday Telegragh