Here Elijah was a voice in the wilderness, up against three Verdi Requiems. We heard some of the Australian baritone Harold Williams's noble Elijah, including his famous aria 'Lord God of Abraham'

TP: "no one else has sung it like that. You can almost reach out and stroke his legato. And he was just as good on the Sargent set."

JTH: "The two best soloists here, Williams and Baillie, were both on the Sargent"

DP: "This is a set from a small company, and a transfer engineer new to me. I think Stanford Robinson conducts very well."

VL: "Parry Jones was the first tenor I ever saw, in Rigoletto with Gwen Catley"
After that we had to hear one of Jones's arias, 'If with all your hearts', before moving on to Verdi................
 
Despite the Verdian strength, it was felt that the Elijah was a particularly inspired issue, bringing back a 78rpm set that was always hard to find and meeting all the criteria for an award.

Williams is a magnificent prophet. From Elijah’s scene with Ahab, when he challenges the priests of Baal, one knows one is in the presence of a powerful figure: actually two: Elijah and Williams. (In “Baal, we cry to thee”, Mendelssohn has given Elijah’s foes one of the best choruses). How firmly Williams sings “Lord God of Abraham”, while “Is not His Word” finds him histrionically exciting and technically accomplished.  He gives a tremendous performance of the role. His fellow Australian Clara Serena exhibits little sign of vibrato in her contralto. Hearing her in this set I am surprised that she sang Anneris and Erda at Covent Garden. She’s rather bland and seems afraid to allow her voice its full flow. Baillie is, as always, fresh-toned, with pin-point attack. Not the most mellifluous of Welsh tenors, Jones matches Williams in responsiveness, though his partiality to the rolled “r”  (“garrrments”) is too much for me. This is possibly his best contribution to the gramophone...

Elijah was one of the great warhorses of the amateur choral movement during the previous two centuries, and Columbia’s decision to make a more or less complete recording in 1930 reflected the combination of commercial acumen and artistic good sense that marked out this company from its rivals. The set was issued on 15 ten-inch discs, so that purchasers could opt for their own individual selections from the great work; and, as the excellent notes accompanying this reissue observe, it remained in the catalogue until 1948, a remarkably long time for a recording from the early days of the electrical era.

Columbia engaged 26-year-old Stanford Robinson to lead the proceedings, which he did with much flair. By 1930, Robinson had already been with the BBC for six years, and he was to remain with it until 1966. Throughout this recording he demonstrates complete command of the work’s idiom; he leads the great choruses with tremendous energy and secures a distinguished contribution from the anonymous orchestra, probably the forerunner of the about-to-be-formed BBC SO. The soloists all make a strong impression. In the title role Harold Williams offers an appropriately magisterial performance, which is finely matched by the radiant soprano of Isobel Baillie and the eloquent tenor of Parry Jones, as well as the rich contralto of Clara Serena.

What especially distinguishes this first reissue in any longplaying format is the astoundingly good quality of the transfers by Andrew Rose of Pristine Sound [sic]. He has successfully managed to do away with the aural “murk” which characterises so many recordings from this period, to reveal a clear and relatively well balanced aural picture. The notes are informative. If Divine Art’s new Historic Sound label is able to maintain these first rate standards of production and repertoire, its future publications will be well worth acquiring, as is certainly the case with this excellent release.