Elgar : The Dream of Gerontius, op. 38. De Waart.

   in Choir & Organ (May, 2014)
It’s well known that Gerontius was a flop at its premiere in Birmingham in 1900, and not just because the forces were famously ill-prepared. Elgar’s choral masterpiece does not adhere to the Victorian norms of oratorio but rather takes its lead from Wagner’s Parsifal in terms of its musical organisation and spiritual subject matter. Small wonder, then, that it took someone from outside the oratorio tradition, namely Richard Strauss, who, on hearing a performance in Dusseldorf, immediately recognised Gerontius for the masterpiece it assuredly is. Despite Strauss’s advocacy, the work has remained by and large the preserve of British musicians, and recordings by European forces are rare indeed. Those by …