“This is the best of me … this I saw and knew; this, if anything of mine, is worth your memory.” – Edward Elgar.
Brisbane Chorale and Brisbane Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Emily Cox, will present Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius on August 24 at 3pm in Brisbane City Hall.
This very special collaboration brings together two highly respected community music organisations, with associate artists Canticum Chamber Choir, organist Christopher Wrench and an ensemble of Queensland-based internationally renowned soloists – Bradley Daley, tenor; Milijana Nikolic, mezzo-soprano; and David Wakeham, baritone.
The Dream of Gerontius is one of the best known and most loved of all Elgar’s repertoire, a landmark choral/symphonic work not often heard in Brisbane – the most recent performance in 2014 by Brisbane Chorale and Brisbane Symphony Orchestra.
The Dream of Gerontius is based on a mystical poem of the same name written by Cardinal John Henry, conveying a vision of the end-of-life journey of a man. For years Elgar toyed with the idea of setting Newman’s poem, writing some themes and motifs, but nothing conclusive emerged.
In 1898, however, he accepted a commission to write a new work for the 1900 Birmingham Triennial Festival. The task was huge. The poem had to be considerably cut for the musical setting, and the musical concept was vast and complex. Remarkably, the score was drafted in a relatively short time, by June, 1900.
Although the premiere of The Dream of Gerontius on October 3, 1900, was a near disaster, with a very under-prepared choir, unwell soloists and a last-minute conductor replacement, thankfully the potential of the work shone through to some of those in attendance.
After another performance in Dusseldorf in 1901 in front of 2500 people, The Dream of Gerontius was soon acclaimed as Elgar’s finest choral work.
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The Dream of Gerontius is a deeply personal human drama on the grandest and most intimate scale. As Elgar confided to a friend, he wrote it out of his “insidest inside”. It is not an oratorio in the traditional sense, but rather a choral opera, a music drama echoing many of Wagner’s techniques.
I promise that this will be an afternoon of uplifting music not to be missed.
events.humanitix.com/the-dream-of-gerontius
Emily Cox is music director of Brisbane Chorale and Canticum Chamber Choir.