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Programme
Steve Elcock Wreck (1999 rev 2017)
Filmed LIVE at Worcester Cathedral as part of the 2024 Elgar Festival
Festival composer Steve Elcock’s epic tone poem, Wreck, has been described as “some of the best orchestral music by a British composer in the last fifty years.”
Artists
English Symphony Orchestra & ChorusFollow the Score:
Wreck-Full-Score-2Critical Response:
“From here to Steve Elcock’s Wreck is to encounter more elemental, even existential forces – what the composer refers to as a ‘‘symphonic allegory’’ portraying a ship’s struggle against intemperate weather at sea. This unfolds as a constantly evolving design, juxtaposing music of unchecked aggression with that of fraught serenity, while highlighting Elcock’s mastery of large-scale formal and expressive contrasts, toward a seismic culmination whose gradual subsidence makes possible the sustained closing section. Here, off-stage mezzo sings in an invented (hence unknown) language what he describes as ‘‘a message of salvation beyond despair, of consolation beyond grief’’ but even this is tempered by encroaching doubt. The ESO gave its all in a piece as demonstrably commended itself to the appreciative audience.” Richard Whitehouse, Arcana.fm
Production Information
Recorded live at Worcester Cathedral for the Elgar Festival, 1st June 2024.
Video direction, audio recording and post production: Tim Burton
Orchestra Manager: Sarah Woolhouse
Orchestra Contractor: Andy Farquharson for The Music Agency