Last night's Friday concert from the NCH Dublin (video usually gets deleted in 6 day)
RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra
Kenneth Montgomery conductor (
replacing Robert Trevino)
Catherine Wyn-Rodgers mezzo soprano
Norbert Ernst tenor
Johan Wållberg bass
RTÉ Philharmonic Choir
Elgar - The Dream of Gerontius / 100’
Out of darkness, light. A shining masterpiece of the English church tradition, Elgar’s
The Dream of Gerontius is a deeply moving meditation on life, death and what comes after that celebrates music’s ability to voice our deepest fears and illuminate our greatest hopes.
A stirring epic for solo voices, chorus and symphony orchestra of operatic dimensions, its sweeping grandeur is matched by a ravishing intensity of feeling and music of aching eloquence and exhilarating ecstasy.
Kenneth Montgomery makes a welcome return to conduct the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra, RTÉ Philharmonic Choir and a trio of formidable soloists: tenor Norbert Ernst, baritone Johan Wållberg and mezzo-soprano Catherine Wyn-Rogers, who has stamped her ownership of the role of the Angel in recent years with singing of ‘great feeling and intensity and an always vivid response to text’ (
Gramophone).
First performed in 1900 and setting Cardinal John Henry Newman’s poem describing the last moments of a dying man, his death and his journey, guided by his guardian angel, in the after-life to judgement and Purgatory, it is the composer’s finest choral work which he declared to be ‘the best of me’.
A touching exploration of the frailty of life at the ultimate moment of its leave-taking, The Dream of Gerontius prompts music as lush as it is luxurious in a mighty, magnificent and altogether moving experience.
https://www.rte.ie/radio/radioplayer/html5/#/lyric/11112099
Intro starts 2' 30'' into video (no interval)