The growing genius of a titan of English music comes vividly into focus in a stunning collection of Edward Elgar’s music for chorus and orchestra from the Brighton Festival Chorus and BBC Concert Orchestra conducted by Barry Wordsworth. The voice was at the centre of Elgar’s musical life as a child – his sister recalled family evenings when “[we] sang and sang for the very joy of singing” – and it was to play a defining role in his own compositions. Spanning 26 years – from the imposing setting of Ecce sacerdos magnus (‘Behold the great priest’)* in 1888 to the richly realised psalm settings of the 1910s, it is possible to chart in these often moving, occasionally monumental works the development of Elgar’s prowess in setting the voice. The muscular and poetic Op.34 Te Deum and Benedictus and consoling Offertory Anthem, O Hearken Thou (composed for the coronation of King George V in 1911) are heard alongside two contrasted psalms – the mighty Great is the Lord and bold and vigorous Give unto the Lord – that h