The Dream of Gerontius

Synopsis

Despite a disastrous premiere in Birmingham on today’s date in 1900, Edward Elgar’s oratorio The Dream of Gerontius has become one of his best-loved and most-frequently performed works in the U.K., where, in 2015, Classic FM offered a guide to what it called the work’s “most epic choral stupendousness.”

Here’s Classic FM’s summary of its story: “The piece follows an ‘everyman’ character (the word ‘Gerontius’ comes from the Greek for ‘old man’) as he faces death, meets his guardian angel and goes before his God before being taken to Purgatory with the promise of everlasting glory.”

Well, all that Roman Catholic talk of Purgatory in the poem by Cardinal John Henry Newman that Elgar set to music did not sit well with the Church of England in the early decades of the 20th century. Many Anglican clerics flatly refused to let it be performed in their cathedrals.

But that controversy is long a thing of the past, and nowadays Gerontius is performed at cathedrals such as St. Paul’s in London and in concert venues such as the Royal Albert Hall, where in 1991 it was performed at the BBC Proms in the presence of the Prince of Wales, now known as King Charles III.

Music Played in Today's Program

Edward Elgar (1857-1934): The Dream of Gerontius; John Shirley-Quirk, baritone; London Symphony Chorus; King’s College Choir, Cambridge; London Symphony Orchestra; Benjamin Britten, conductor; London/Decca 448170

On This Day

Births

• 1923 - Polish-born American composer and conductor Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, in Lwow

• 1936 - American composer Steve Reich, in New York

Deaths

• 1931 - Danish composer and conductor Carl Nielsen, 66, in Copenhagen

• 1953 - English composer Sir Arnold Bax, 69, in Cork, Ireland

Premieres

• 1822 - Beethoven: Consecration of the House Overture, for the opening of the Josephstadt Theater in Vienna

• 1860 - Brahms: Serenade No. 1, in Hanover, conducted by Joseph Joachim

• 1888 - Gilbert & Sullivan: operetta, The Yeomen of the Guard, at the Savoy Theatre in London

• 1900 - Elgar: oratorio, The Dream of Gerontius, at Birmingham, Hans Richter conducting

• 1929 - Walton: Viola Concerto, by the Queen’s Hall Orchestra conducted by the composer, with Paul Hindemith the soloist

• 1963 - Ginastera: Violin Concerto, by the New York Philharmonic, Leonard Bernstein conducting, with Ruggiero Ricci the soloist

• 1968 - William Schuman’s To Thee Old Cause at New York Philharmonic concert conducted by Bernstein (dedicated to memory of Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy)

• 1971 - Copland: Duo for flute and piano, in Philadelphia, by flutist Elaine Shaffer and pianist Hephzibah Menuhin

• 1984 - Corigliano: Creations for narrator and chamber orchestra, in Milwaukee, with Lukas Foss conducting

• 1996 - James MacMillan: Cello Concerto, at the Barbican in London, by Mstislav Rostropovich with the London Symphony, Sir Colin Davis conducting

• 1997 - Anthony Davis: Jacob’s Ladder, by the Kansas City Symphony, Bill McGlaughlin conducting

Others

• 1833 - Berlioz marries Irish actress Harriet “Henrietta” Smithson at the British embassy in Paris. Liszt acts as one of the witnesses.