Elgar: The Dream of Gerontius

The Dream Gerontius survived a disastrous first performance and initial controversy surrounding the Roman Catholicism of its text to become an enduring staple of the choral repertoire in Britain and beyond. Elgar’s oratorio, a key emotional element in The Choral, the 2025 film starring Ralph Fiennes, receives a compelling interpretation in Martyn Brabbins’ magnificent recording with the choir that inspired Alan Bennett’s movie screenplay. The dedicated amateur singers of the Huddersfield Choral Society are joined by a classy chamber choir comprising 20 students from Manchester’s Royal Northern College of Music. The Orchestra of Opera North, on top form throughout, mine a multitude of Wagnerian colors from the score to support David Butt Philip’s sensational performance as the pious Gerontius, whose soul moves from the spiritual torments of death to face God’s judgement and enter Purgatory. Brabbins conjures an ideal balance between the work’s dramatic choral set-pieces and passages of great tenderness, aided by his Gerontius and Karen Cargill as the Guardian Angel, supremely compassionate in her sonorous final farewell.