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Elgar: The Dream of Gerontius
24, 25,26 January 2008
Symphony Hall, Boston
“The elegant Gerald Finley sang the music of the Priest with commanding power and the litany of the Angel of the Agony with reverential intensity.” Classicalsource.com
Photo: Ben Heppner (with Gerry hiding behind Sir Colin Davis)
Sarah Connolly, mezzo-soprano
Gerald Finley, bass-baritone
Ben Heppner, tenor
Tanglewood Festival Chorus
Boston Symphony Orchestra
Sir Colin Davis, conductor
Edward Elgar:
The Dream of Gerontius
There will be a broadcast of this production on Friday 25 January 2008 on WGBH radio at 1.30pm local time: click on their website below and follow link on left hand side for "Radio" http://www.wgbh.org/schedules/program-info?program_id=52748&episode_id=3768078
And a second broadcast on Saturday 26 January 2008 on WCRB radio at 8.00pm local time: click on their website below and follow link on top right side for to "Listen Live" http://www.wcrb.com/
What the critics say
Jeremy Eichler, the
Boston Globe, January 25, 2008
http://www.boston.com/ae/music/articles/2008/01/25/davis_returns_with_elgars_gentle_giant/
Davis returns with Elgar's gentle giant
People still talk about Sir Colin Davis and the Boston Symphony Orchestra's performances of Elgar's choral masterpiece "The Dream of Gerontius" - in 1982. Anyone wondering what the fuss was about should make haste to Symphony Hall this weekend, as Davis has returned to the podium with this endearingly grand oratorio, a work that tells of one man's final moments on earth and his soul's journey to purgatory. Last night, Davis led the BSO, the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, and an impressive slate of soloists, in a noble and moving performance, one that did justice to the work's grand scale but also to the serene and tender humanity at its core.
Elgar completed "Gerontius" in 1899, when his fame was just beginning to spread. It is a piece whose massive proportions are belied by its remarkable fluidity. With a text adapted from John Henry Newman's poem of the same name, the work begins with an expansive Prelude that pans majestically across the landscape of the entire oratorio. We then meet Gerontius on his deathbed and hear his anguished final prayers and supplications; we follow him on his journey, guided by a priest and an immense chorus of assistants. Part II opens in a calm sea of muted strings, quite literally otherworldly in tone. Gerontius's soul, led by an angel, gets a harrowing glimpse of its maker. The soul then craves the refuge of purgatory, and the work culminates with the angel's achingly beautiful song of consolation and farewell.
Last night Ben Heppner sang the challenging role of Gerontius with both subtlety and power. Elgar wanted his title character to be not a pious martyr but "a man like us," attached to the pleasures of the world but also yearning for redemption. Heppner's performance captured this tension, and though he was not overall in flawless voice, he came through when it mattered. And one had to admire his very first entrance. With a single line, "Jesu, Maria - I am near to death, And Thou art calling me," he telegraphed both the fragility and weariness of a dying man as well as the crazed desperation of a soul clinging resolutely to life.
But for me, Sarah Connolly's singing was the welcome surprise of the evening. In her BSO subscription debut, this British mezzo was utterly captivating as the Angel, singing with a slightly veiled yet glowing voice, full of deeply felt expression. In the work's final pages, she brought Gerontius's soul to rest with all the gentleness and warmth you could ask for.
Gerald Finley was pure-toned and eloquent in the work's smaller solo roles, and the Tanglewood Festival Chorus sang gloriously. For his part, Davis feels this music deeply and, as an octogenarian, he has spoken of the personal resonance of its themes. That did not however translate into a sentimental or melodramatic account. Davis gives the musicians room to play, and last night in Symphony Hall, the music unfolded with an unforced grace and a kind of Wagnerian sweep. Climaxes blazed brilliantly along the way, but the most memorable moments came in the touching peacefulness of the work's resolution.
Lloyd Schwartz, The
Phoenix, 29 January 2008
http://thephoenix.com/article_ektid55336.aspx
A youthful 80-year-old Sir Colin Davis was back in front of the Boston Symphony Orchestra last weekend with one of the pieces he loves most, Sir Edward Elgar’s vast cantata The Dream of Gerontius. (He led the only other BSO performance, in 1982, when he was 55.) The text is about half of Cardinal John Henry Newman’s 900-line poem about the death of an “old man” (“Gerontius” — as in “gerontology”) and his soul’s journey to Purgatory. In his essay in the BSO program book, Michael Steinberg calls this “spiritual drama . . . the greatest work of sacred music between the Verdi Requiem and Stravinsky’s Symphony of Psalms.”
Elgar’s cantata has neither Verdi’s ferocious drama nor Stravinsky’s hieratic purity, though it whispers of both. It’s focused more on an individual’s suffering and redemption. Newman was an Anglican theologian who controversially converted to Catholicism in 1845, a time in England when Roman Catholics were still persecuted. He wrote his long poem 20 years later, and it was an important work for the Catholic Elgar.
“Fervent” perhaps best describes the music. There isn’t a moment that doesn’t sound sincere or like an apt musical counterpart to Newman’s plush Victorian diction (“before the Throne/Stands the great Angel of the Agony,/The same who strengthened Him, what time He knelt/Lone in the garden shade bedewed with blood”). Without rushing, Sir Colin kept the music rolling forward in great, rich, melodic waves, each new climax bigger — and more fervent — than the last, yet never syrupy, and by the end quite moving.
The long Part II post-mortem is more full of incident than the long Part I, which is devoted to the passing away of Gerontius. Tenor Ben Heppner sang firmly despite occasional rough spots, but with rather undifferentiated fervor in expressing his eagerness to have shuffled off his mortal coil, his amazement that his mortal fear has dissolved, his repugnance at the demons eager to drag to Hell the newly departed spirits.
As Gerontius’s guiding angel, British mezzo-soprano Sarah Connolly sang with a kind of rapturous restraint and a vivid, almost conversational but warm-toned projection of Newman’s consoling words. Canadian bass-baritone Gerald Finley, both Priest and Angel of the Agony, had a ringing voice, precise articulation, and, yes, fervor. The orchestra played with full-throated ease, and John Oliver’s Tanglewood Festival Chorus outdid itself, singing — from memory, as usual — the Priest’s “Assistants,” echoes of Gerontius’s mourners, dread demons, and celestial choirs
Susan Stempleski for classicalsource.com
http://www.classicalsource.com/db_control/db_concert_review.php?id=5430
For his second Boston Symphony program this season, Sir Colin Davis, brought Elgar’s “The Dream of Gerontius” back to Symphony Hall – after an absence of 25 years. Until this past week, the BSO had programmed Elgar’s great choral work only once, a memorable occasion in 1982, which was presided over by Sir Colin – his first performances, too – with Jessye Norman as the Angel. Since then Sir Colin has recorded ‘Gerontius’ for LSO Live (in December 2005 with David Rendall, who replaced Ben Heppner, Anne Sofie von Otter and Alastair Miles), but there have been only two Boston-area performances – one by the Dedham Choral Society in 1988, and another in 2001 by the Boston Philharmonic led by Benjamin Zander, with the distinguished British tenor Anthony Rolfe Johnson as Gerontius. The prospect of hearing Gerontius under the baton of Sir Colin Davis with an impressive slate of soloists led to very high expectations.
The audience was not disappointed. The performance was a magnificent one, dramatic and moving. Sir Colin conducted the piece with deep understanding, great conviction and a powerful sense of drama, and the orchestra responded with uncommon warmth, beauty of sound and dynamic verve. The deeply-felt music was perfectly paced, with an ideal sense of Elgarian rubato, and appropriately astounding power in the big climaxes. The spiritual qualities of Elgar’s music were so intensely and successfully conveyed that it was impossible for listeners to remain unaffected.
The soloists and the Tanglewood Festival Chorus fully realized both the human and otherworldly aspects of the narrative. Ben Heppner brought pathos and power to the challenging role of Gerontius. His thoughtful and searching portrayal rose to passionate eloquence in the heroic moments, and he captured all the role’s intimacy as he went through feelings of despair, terror, supplication and, finally, wearied calm. His ‘Novissima hora est’ at the end of Part One was profoundly moving.
Sarah Connolly made an eloquent and charming angel and produced some wonderfully soft singing – too soft at times, as she had trouble making herself heard over the orchestra in her Part Two solo, ‘My work is done’. In her great song of compassion, ‘Softly and gently, dearly-ransomed soul’, she brought Gerontius’s soul to rest with serenity and warmth.
The elegant Gerald Finley sang the music of the Priest with commanding power and the litany of the Angel of the Agony with reverential intensity. The contribution of the Tanglewood Festival Chorus was crystal-clear in diction, completely involved and could not have been finer. Together with the soloists and chorus, Sir Colin and the BSO delivered a truly memorable account of Elgar’s extraordinary work.