Elgar: The Kingdom review – respectful and admirable, but this is still a work hard to love
That lack of popularity is reflected in the scarcity of recordings. This performance, conducted by David Temple and recorded in the newly restored Victorian theatre at Alexandra Palace in London, seems to be only the fourth of the complete work currently available. Temple is clearly a huge admirer of the score – 'a gem from first note to last', he calls it – and that admiration shines through his performance with the excellent Crouch End Festival Chorus and a fine quartet of soloists. But to my ears at least it lacks immediacy and, alongside the existing versions – conducted by Adrian Boult, Richard Hickox and Mark Elder, it never quite matches up, for all its good intentions.
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