Showing posts with label Dream of Gerontius. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dream of Gerontius. Show all posts

Saturday, September 20, 2008

Review of Dream of Gerontius in The Press

David Sell wrote the review of the 13 September performance of Elgar's Dream of Gerontius in Christchurch for The Press. On the whole he concurred with the views of Tony Ryan (review on Upbeat).

He goes on to say this about the choir:

Gerontius is a challenge to any conductor, and Brian Law shaped the work convincingly. He had trained his choir thoroughly, and the massive climaxes were spine-tingling.

Elgar did his best to make the demons' chorus fiendishly difficult, but the choir beat him.

My last word, however, must go to the Cathedral boy choristers, whose pure bright tone added a brilliance to the peak choruses, yet could be as ethereal as the angel, or Elgar, would want.