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Elena Langer: The Dong with a Luminous Nose
LPO–D932
Total playing time: 23:40
Released: 7 February 2025
Producer Nick Parker, Floating Earth
Engineer Tom Lewington, Floating Earth
Executive Producers Elena Dubinets, David Burke, Graham Wood
Publisher Elena Langer
Recorded at the Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall on 18 March 2023
℗ 2025 London Philharmonic Orchestra Ltd.
Elena Langer: The Dong with a Luminous Nose
The Dong with a Luminous Nose (world premiere performance)
London Philharmonic Orchestra & Choir
Andrey Boreyko conductor
Kristina Blaumane cello
Elena Langer (born 1974) is a prolific composer of colourful, dramatic and often humorous music, familiar to audiences across Europe and America through her operatic, vocal and orchestral pieces including Figaro Gets a Divorce, and Rhondda Rips It Up!, both written for Welsh National Opera.
Co-commissioned by the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Boston Symphony Orchestra, The Dong with a Luminous Nose is a whimsical cantata based on Edward Lear’s nonsense poem about the Dong, a melancholic mythical creature pining for his lost love, the Jumbly Girl. This recording captures the world premiere performance by the London Philharmonic Orchestra & Choir, conducted by Andrey Boreyko and featuring the LPO’s Principal Cello, Kristina Blaumane, as soloist.
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Reviews
... affectionate, gently humorous, with a dusting of magic thanks to tinkling percussion.
Financial Times
Concert Review
It’s unique in that it’s partly cello concerto (the LPO’s own Kristina Blaumane was the brilliantly assured soloist) and partly choral cantata, with the words pungently set in musical styles ranging from impressionist waltz to anguished atonality. What’s most impressive, however, is that Langer manages to uncover the sadness of lost love lurking beneath the poem’s whimsy.
The Times
Concert Review
Andrey Boreyko was the commanding presence on the podium … he gave a masterclass in how a conductor serves the interests of composers and their works, and how to leave the audience shouting for more …
Bachtrack
Concert Review