Name: Daniel Barenboim conducts Elgar’s “The Dream of Gerontius”
Start: 2012-01-14T00:00:00.000Z
End: 2012-01-14T00:00:00.000Z
Location: Berliner Philharmonie

Organization

Conductor

Daniel Barenboim

Mezzo-soprano

Anna Larsson

Tenor

Ian Storey

Bass

Kwangchul Youn

Chorus master

Simon Hasley

Orchestra

Berliner Philharmoniker

Daniel Barenboim conducts Elgar’s “The Dream of Gerontius”

Berlin

Germany

Berliner Philharmonie

While Edward Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius enjoys nearly the same esteem as Handel’s Messiah and Mendelssohn’s Elijah in his native England, almost every performance abroad is seen as a rediscovery. And it is to such that the Berliner Philharmoniker and conductor Daniel Barenboim invite you with this concert from 2012, presenting a work with an individual musical language and the penetrating power of faith.

Daniel Barenboim conducts Elgar’s “The Dream of Gerontius”: Concert Various

Public

Concert

Approved

As the BBC once said in the introduction to a concert, Edward Elgar’s oratorio The Dream of Gerontius is seen in Great Britain as a “national monument”. While the work enjoys nearly the same esteem as Handel’s Messiah and Mendelssohn’s Elijah in its native land, almost every performance abroad is seen as a rediscovery. And it is to such that the Berliner Philharmoniker and conductor Daniel Barenboim invite you with this concert.

To make The Dream of Gerontius comprehensible to audiences, comparisons are often drawn – but these only partially go to the core of the work. Strauss’s Death and Transfiguration is comparable, according to some: As with Elgar, it is about someone dying who ultimately achieves heavenly bliss, but in contrast to Strauss, it is not about fighting and heroism, but a spiritual vision of the transition to the afterlife.

Parallels are also often drawn to Wagner’s music, which Elgar revered. The through-composed structure is doubtlessly inspired by Wagner in that there is no division into arias and choruses. And there are also some elements reminiscent of Parsifal. Overall, however, The Dream of Gerontius is a completely independent composition with an individual musical language and a penetrating power of faith. One of the first continental Europeans who recognised the value of the oratorio was, incidentally, Richard Strauss, who after a performance, praised Elgar as “the first English progressive musician”.

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