This week’s episode bears the cheery title of ELGAR AND DEATH. The central piece is a premiere recording of his 1893 symphonic cantata, The Black Knight, which sets an anonymous 17th century ballad describing the demise of the 14th century Scottish king, Alexander III. But wait! it’s even more obscure than you might think, because Sir Edward Elgar sets Longfellow’s English version of Ludwig Uhland’s ‘mini-epic’ recounting in German this sad tale of Death’s appearance at the 14th century Scottish court. The performers are the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Chorus and Orchestra.

Fun times continue with other melancholy tales of death: lovers and villagers roaming along a deserted seashore or on the forbidding hills – the Saint Louis Chamber Chorus sings the iconic My Love Dwelt in a Northern Land, and the London Symphony Chorus sings Death on the Hills (a typically jolly Russian poem translated by Rosa Newmarch).

An appropriate coda to all this gloom (actually, very little of this sounds at all gloomy!) is provided by Westminster Abbey Choir with They Are at Rest, and finally, the rapturous conclusion to Elgar’s masterpiece, The Dream of Gerontius, in which the dying soul is finally admitted into heaven. The performers are the Bournemouth Symphony Chorus and the Waynflete Singers, with Mezzo-soprano Sarah Fryer. [This oratorio is the centerpiece of the new movie, The Choral, starring Ralph Fiennes, soon to be in theaters here, and which is a must-see.]

This episode of Re-choired Listening promises to be very satisfying listening.

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