Argo

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor's Hiawathawas once a fixture of all reasonably competent choral societies. It's a tremendous setting Longfellow's poem and became a fixture of London's Royal Choral Society who would perform 'Hiawatha seasons' betweens the world wars under the baton of Sir Malcolm Sargent at the Royal Albert Hall. A hero of African-Americans (he had a Sierra Leonean Creole father and was the first coloured composer to achieve major status), Coleridge-Taylor created a work of great imagination. Bryn Terfel, Helen Field and Arthur Davies do the work proud under the baton of a conductor who has championed the work in modern times, Kenneth Alwyn. With the magnificent chorus of Welsh National Opera - who sound as if they believe every word they're singing - this is a fabulous piece of late Victoriana.

— James Jolly