Sir Edward Elgar - Songs from "The Starlight Express"

In November 1915, Sir Edward Elgar was invited to write the music for a children's fantasy play to be produced at the Kingsway Theatre that Christmas. The play was "The Starlight Express", adapted from Algernon Blackwood's novel, "A Prisoner in Fairyland", by Violet Pearn and the author himself.
The story appealed to Elgar because of its similarities to the private fantasy world of his own childhood, which he had depicted in the music he wrote for "The Wand of Youth". His first thought was to re-use that music and he wove many reminiscences of it into the score. He worked on it enthusiastically and in just over a month produced over 300 pages of songs and incidental music in time for the rehearsals.
At the end of the score the 58 year old Elgar signed his name and, touchingly, his age as 15.
The songs from "The Starlight Express" are sung by Elin Manahan Thomas and Roderick Williams and played by the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Sir Andrew Davis.