The Dream of Gerontius

Kathryn Rudge Mezzo-soprano
Andrew Staples Tenor
James Platt Bass
City of London Choir
King's College Choir, Cambridge

Famously considered by Elgar ‘the best of me’, The Dream of Gerontius is all-engrossing, from its hushed, emotionally charged opening to its shattering climax. This performance, 125 years since the work’s premiere, is the first joint concert for conductor Daniel Hyde’s two choirs: City of London Choir and the world-famous Choir of King’s College, Cambridge.

Gerontius broke boundaries in 1900. It proved that a British composer could write a sacred choral work that stood comparison with the great oratorios. Unlike traditional oratorios, though, Elgar’s music is ‘through-composed’ – continuously evolving with the drama – and owes much to Wagnerian opera. ‘Since Parsifal, nothing of this mystic, religious kind of music has appeared… that displays the same power and beauty as yours,’ said Elgar’s friend, the music publisher August Jaeger.

Elgar also charted new waters by setting a spiritual but not, crucially, a biblical text. Cardinal Newman’s poem describes a devout man’s final hours on earth and his soul’s journey to judgement. Distinctively Catholic themes (including the choruses of wild Demons, thrilling, exultant Angels and Souls in Purgatory) were highly controversial at the time. Yet Gerontius is Everyman; and Elgar’s mighty work, one of the most cherished for chorus and orchestra, transcends religious differences. The exquisite final bars, in which the guardian Angel lays the Soul to rest with a loving farewell, are full of consolation and extraordinary emotional resonance that speak to all.