Continue the journey…
We suggest five works to explore after Elgar’s Dream of Gerontius…
Elgar’s success with Gerontius led to a commission from the Birmingham Triennial Musical Festival for another large-scale oratorio. Opening with the hauntingly atmospheric chorus ‘The Spirit of the Lord’, the similarly dramatic The Apostles tells of the story of Jesus’s disciples, from their initial selection to his crucifixion and Ascension.
(Bryn Terfel (baritone, below) et al; London Symphony Orchestra and Chorus/richard Hickox Chandos CHAN8875).
Elgar’s publisher August Jaeger was in the chorus for the premiere of Hubert Parry’s Judith in Birmingham in 1888, and Elgar himself was a fan. Depicting the exploits of its eponymous Old Testament heroine – culminating in her beheading of the Assyrian general Holofernes – the oratorio’s memorable moments include two dark processional marches and the first appearance of the tune that has since become familiar as ‘Dear Lord and Father of Mankind’. (Sarah Fox (soprano) et al; London Mozart Players/william Vann Chandos CHSA5268(2)).
Parry’s student Ralph Vaughan Williams is known to have had the score of The Dream of Gerontius close to hand as he worked on his A Sea Symphony, begun in 1903 and eventually premiered at the Leeds Festival in 1910. The 70-minute work features soloists and a chorus throughout its four movements as it sets texts by US poet Walt Whitman in suitably grandiloquent style. (Katherine Broderick (soprano) et al; The Hallé/mark Elder Hallé CDHLL7542).
When Elgar’s admirer Richard Strauss was invited by Heidelberg University to
receive an honorary depicts the doctorate in 1903, he thanked them by composing and conducting his opulent cantata Taillefer. Here, the title character is a servant in the court of William the Conqueror with a beautiful singing voice that earns him his freedom and the invitation to join his former boss as a knight at the Battle of Hastings. (Gerhard Siegel (tenor) et al; Munich SO/ Hayko Siemens Arte Nova G010001699998X).
Finally, for a more recent setting of texts by Cardinal Newman, try Arvo Pärt’s Littlemore Tractus, a lifeaffirming, hymn-like motet for choir and organ written in 2001 to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the great theologian’s birth. (Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir/paul Hillier Harmonia Mundi HMU907401).
Parry’s Judith exploits of its eponymous Old Testament heroine