March 27th 2004
The Dream of Gerontius – Edward Elgar

8:00pm, St George's R.C. Cathedral, Southwark

"This is the best of me; for the rest, I ate, and drank, and slept, loved and hated, like another. My life was as the vapour, and is not; but this I saw, and knew; this, if anything of mine, is worth your memory". So Elgar quoted John Ruskin on the final page of his autograph manuscript of The Dream of Gerontius. This oratorio, a setting of Cardinal Newman's poetic statement of his Catholic faith, is a dramatic work far removed from the Victorian oratorio models that Elgar must have heard as a boy at the Three Choirs Festival. His previous choral works written as commissions for music festivals, The Banner of St. George, The Black Knight, Caractacus, all lead stylistically to The Dream of Gerontius. The premier of the orchestral Enigma Variations in 1899 took Elgar's reputation away from the provinces and placed him at the forefront of English music. Gerontius followed as a commission for the Birmingham Festival where it received its notorious first performance in 1900. After that performance Elgar vowed he would never again publicly expose his musical feelings in such a manner.

The work took some years to gain recognition and pride of place in the repertoire of English choral societies. It was at the Rhine Festival in German that The Dream of Gerontius first received a fine professional performance, enabling the audience to understand the depth and originality Elgar's music. With Gerontius Elgar wrote an oratorio that finds its place with the greatest sacred music of the European tradition.

• Deryck Webb – Gerontius
• Stephen Foulkes – Priest and Angel of the Agony
• Louise Tucker – The Angel

Please note that tickets prices are £15.00, or £10.00 for concessions, available at the door.