The Dream of Gerontius

ELGAR The Dream Of Gerontius BARENBOIM WYN-ROGERS · STAPLES · HAMPSON STAATSKAPELLE BERLIN STAATSOPERNCHOR BERLIN · RIAS KAMMERCHOR EDWARD ELGAR 1857–1934 The Dream of Gerontius by Cardinal Newman set to music for mezzo-soprano, tenor and bass soli, chorus and orchestra (op.38) CD 1 Part I 35.39 Catherine Wyn-Rogers mezzo-soprano (Angel) 1 Prelude 9.20 Andrew Staples tenor (Gerontius) 2 Jesu Maria — I am near to death Gerontius 3.36 Thomas Hampson baritone (The Priest / Angel of the Agony) 3 Kyrie eleïson Assistants 2.12 Staatsopernchor Berlin Chorus master: Martin Wright 4 Rouse thee, my fainting soul Gerontius 0.49 RIAS Kammerchor Chorus master: Justin Doyle (Assistants, Demons, Choir of Angelicals, Souls in Purgatory) 5 Be merciful, be gracious; spare him, Lord Assistants 2.37 Staatskapelle Berlin 6 Sanctus fortis, Sanctus Deus Gerontius 5.47 DANIEL BARENBOIM 7 I can no more; for now it comes again Gerontius 2.11 8 Rescue him, O Lord, in this his evil hour Assistants 1.57 Daniel Barenboim 9 Novissima hora est Gerontius 1.10 bu Proficiscere, anima Christiana, de hoc mundo!The Priest 1.53 bl Go, in the name of Angels and Archangels Assistants, the Priest 4.07 CD 2 Part II 58.18 1 Introduction 1.37 2 I went to sleep; and now I am refresh’d Soul of Gerontius 3.35 3 My work is done, my task is o’er Angel, Soul of Gerontius 9.16 4 Low-born clods of brute earth Demons, Angel 2.40 5 The mind bold and independent Demons 2.29 6 I see not those false spirits Soul of Gerontius, Angel 3.40 7 Praise to the Holiest in the height Choir of Angelicals, 3.05 Angel, Soul of Gerontius 8 Glory to Him, who evermore by truth and justice reigns 1.16 Choir of Angelicals, Angel, Soul of Gerontius 9 But hark! a grand mysterious harmony Soul of Gerontius 0.47 bu And now the threshold, as we traverse it Angel 0.36 bl Praise to the Holiest in the height Choir of Angelicals 7.50 bm Thy judgment now is near Angel, Soul of Gerontius 2.31 bn Jesu! by that shuddering dread which fell on Thee 5.20 Angel of the Agony, Soul of Gerontius, Voices on Earth bo Praise to His Name! O happy, suffering soul! Angel 1.22 bp Take me away, and in the lowest deep there let me be 3.38 Soul of Gerontius bq Lord, Thou hast been our refuge Souls in Purgatory 1.06 br Softly and gently, dearly-ransom’d soul 7.30 Angel, Souls in Purgatory, Choir of Angelicals JOURNEY TO THE HEREAFTER Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius Edward Elgar was instrumental in restoring British music to international standing around the turn of the twentieth century. Having found his individual voice, he was composing vocal and orchestral works of great originality, and his reputation soon spread beyond Britain to the Continent and North America. Works like the “Enigma” Variations, the two monumental Symphonies, the Violin Concerto and the Cello Concerto earned him a secure place in international musical life, though only gradually has the full range and diversity of his output become generally appreciated: not only magnificent choral and orchestral works but also compositions for piano, organ and various chamber combinations. The self- taught Elgar, who achieved his mastery through practical means — “learning by doing” — became the most significant English composer between Henry Purcell and Benjamin Britten. Along with the orchestral works already cited, it was with The Dream of Gerontius that Elgar most thoroughly demonstrated his sovereignty as a composer. It firmly belongs to the tradition of Handelian oratorios, most notably Messiah, which enjoys the status of a national treasure. This unique English oratorio culture had been continued by Mendelssohn, Dvorák,ˇ Gounod and Saint-Saëns, and Elgar was their heir. As a young man he got to know the repertoire at first hand as a violinist in the great choral festivals of his native Worcester. Like other late Victorian composers — Alexander Campbell Mackenzie, Charles Villiers Stanford and Hubert Parry — Elgar dedicated himself to injecting new vitality into the English oratorio. The Dream of Gerontius represented a new departure within this tradition, both in the choice of subject — not taken from the Bible — and in the music. It was commissioned by the renowned Birmingham Festival, a centre of oratorio cultivation, which asked Elgar to write a large choral work for 1900. He picked the Gerontius poem by Cardinal John Henry Newman, with which he had long been familiar. Although he finished his vast composition on time, the allotted rehearsal period was plainly too short for the performers to master its considerable technical difficulties. Elgar’s innovations in style and sonorities made enormous — at times, excessive — demands on the choir and orchestra, and the premiere on 3 October 1900 in Birmingham Town Hall was a fiasco. The serious deficiencies in the performance cast an unfavourable light on the “sacred cantata” itself, and Elgar was not yet part of the musical “establishment”, the circle of artists whose prominence ensured courtesy and esteem in the reception of new works. Thanks to an unforeseeable development, Gerontius experienced a dramatic reversal of fortune in the decade following its first performance, eventually becoming the best-loved of all English oratorios — except for the Messiah. Julius Buths (1851–1920), a protégé of Richard Strauss and director of the Lower Rhine Music Festival, was so taken with Elgar’s work that he determined to have it performed in Düsseldorf. In December 1901 Buths conducted it there (sung in his own German translation) in the presence of the composer, who now witnessed a real success, indeed a triumph. A repeat performance was immediately scheduled for the following year, and it too was enthusiastically acclaimed. The oratorio’s extraordinary reception on the Continent in turn radiated back to Britain, where The Dream of Gerontius now aroused enormous interest and led to several new commissions for Elgar. For the Birmingham Festival, he composed two further ambitious oratorios: The Apostles in 1903 and The Kingdom in 1906; another panel in a projected triptych, The Last Judgement, was never completed. Gerontius has remained the epitome of Elgar and the modern English oratorio. The initial persistent opposition to the work by the Anglican Church, which found Newman’s text and Elgar’s music too Catholic and incompatible with prevailing religious doctrines, soon gave way to nearly universal approbation, in London and beyond. Formally, the work consists of two through-composed parts, clearly differentiated as belonging to “this world” and “the next” by changing role names for the soloists and large choruses. In Part I, the tenor embodies the dying Gerontius, in Part II, his Soul. Casting a tenor in the title role may suggest a classic “operatic hero”, but he first must lose his struggle against death before embarking on his journey to the hereafter. He is accompanied there by an Angel (mezzo-soprano) who guards and guides him. The Priest in the first part becomes the Angel of the Agony in the second, and Elgar’s employment of a deep male voice creates a satisfying balance among the soloists. Musically, Gerontius is clearly indebted to the so-called English musical renaissance, which embraced earlier traditions — particularly the sacred music of preceding centuries — as well as bolstering relations with the prevailing late-Romantic aesthetic. Echoes of Mahler and Richard Strauss in the work are obvious, and above all the reverberations of Wagner’s Parsifal, which inspired Elgar when he first heard it at the 1892 Bayreuth Festival. He was immensely fascinated by the opera’s musical idiom. Not only did he integrate its leitmotivic technique into the oratorio: many passages sound conspicuously like quotes. His deeply expressive and deeply impressive Dream of Gerontius can fairly be called the “English Parsifal”. Detlef Giese Translation Richard Evidon Le Songe de Gerontius d’Elgar, UN VOYAGE DANS L’AU-DELÀ Edward Elgar, dont le talent est apparu au grand jour au tournant du XXe siècle, a permis à la musique britannique de revenir sur le devant de la scène internationale après une longue traversée du désert. La réputation de ce compositeur, qui a su enrichir de manière originale autant les genres vocaux qu’instrumentaux et trouvé de bonne heure un langage personnel, a vite dépassé les frontières du Royaume-Uni. Des pages comme les Variations Enigma, ses deux symphonies, monumentales, mais aussi ses deux concertos instrumentaux, pour violon et pour violoncelle, ont conquis une place plus que respectable au répertoire international. Cependant, l’ensemble de sa production, vaste et diverse, qui comprend aussi bien de remarquables œuvres chorales que de la musique orchestrale, des partitions pour piano, pour orgue et pour diverses formations de chambre, ne s’est imposé que petit à petit dans la conscience collective. Musicien autodidacte ayant acquis son superbe métier “sur le tas”, Elgar est considéré à juste titre comme le compositeur anglais le plus important entre Henry Purcell et Benjamin Britten. C’est non seulement avec les œuvres citées mais aussi et surtout avec un grand oratorio, The Dream of Gerontius (Le Songe de Gerontius), qu’Elgar fit la preuve de son éminent talent de compositeur, s’inscrivant dans la tradition de l’oratorio haendélien, notamment du Messie, qui a en Grande-Bretagne l’aura d’un objet sacré. Cette tradition s’est perpétuée dans le pays grâce à Haydn, Mendelssohn, Dvorák,ˇ Gounod et Saint-Saëns, et Elgar en a recueilli l’héritage. De bonne heure, il avait découvert les grandes œuvres chorales dans les festivals de renom consacrés à ce répertoire, notamment dans sa ville natale de Worcester.

Load more