Enoch Arden

Melodrama for Speaker and Piano

By: Alfred Tennyson, Richard Strauss - composer

Narrated by: Benjamin Luxon, Frederick Moyer - piano

Continuing a collaboration started years ago with a performance at Tanglewood of Schubert`s Die Schone Mullerin, Benjamin Luxon and Frederick Moyer now turn to the little-explored genre of music for piano and narrator. Enoch Arden first came to international attention with a recording by Claude Raines and Glenn Gould but has since drifted back to obscurity. This is a work that both Luxon and Moyer have loved for many years. The poem is immediately accessible to any audience and tells a heart-wrenching story of friendship, love, separation, and sacrifice. Strauss masterful score creates a powerful soundtrack to the saga. Music by Richard Strauss, performed on piano by Frederick Moyer.

Public Domain (P)2011 JRI Recordings

Critic reviews

“The performance draws you into the tale with the kind of wonder millions experience while immersing themselves in the adventures of Harry Potter.” ( Gramophone)

"Luxon narrates with exemplary diction and his nuanced phrasing and subtle illumination of every detail of Tennyson`s ornate lines makes for a compelling and ultimately moving experience…. Beautifully recorded.” ( Florida Sun Sentinel)

A Touching Story in Verse

What did you love best about Enoch Arden?

Tennyson's poetry and Strauss's music are brought together beautifully by an able narrator and pianist.

Unintelligible

The recording appears to have been made in an echo chamber with the performer far from the microphone, making the words blend together. Then, just when one begins to catch the meaning, in comes the piano, close at hand and significantly louder than the voice, drowning out the words. The reader, although experienced at reading verse, is guilty of spelling pronunciations such as pronouncing the "b" in "clambering."