RSNO, 30/05/2015

Elgar : The Dream of Gerontius

Toby Spence (tenor)
Sarah Connolly (mezzo-soprano)
Alan Opie (baritone)
RSNO Chorus
Royal Scottish National Orchestra
Peter Oundjian

I don't adhere to the notion that Elgar is the nec plus ultra of British composers, at least of the last century.  For my money, both Vaughan Williams and Britten rate higher, and there have always been pages of Elgar (the symphonies) which can only be called snooze-worthy.  For a long time, I ranked the oratorio The Dream of Gerontius in that category too, but it's interesting what performing a piece, as opposed to just listening to it, can do for you.  Having learned the piece to sing in it three times in five years, I developed a completely new perspective, and a serious appreciation for Gerontius.  That's not to say there aren't a few places where it's easy for the attention to wander, such as the start of Part 2, but there is also much to enjoy in it, not to mention that it's an enormously satisfying thing to sing.  The downside of knowing it from the inside, however, is that it can make you extra picky, especially when you know exactly where the pitfalls lie.

As mentioned in previous reviews, the RSNO's concert season always ends with a big choral concert, and Gerontius certainly fits the bill in that respect.  They had also pushed the boat out with the soloists, the trio of Sarah Connolly, Toby Spence and Alan Opie being amongst the very finest available in this country.  Finally, as I've also noted before, the conductor Peter Oundjian is good with  British music of this period, he seems to have an instinctive grasp of its style and colour, so this was a very promising concert indeed.

The end results were not everything they could have been, but nor would I call it a disappointing evening.  Toby Spence, on whose shoulders much of the evening rested, is an excellent Gerontius, very expressive, but he was just a little under the weather tonight.  Apart from the great cry of "Take me away", which rang out clear as a bell, anything above a G was not quite what it should have been, and there was occasionally a touch of gravel in his voice.  I daresay our hodgepodge late spring climate got the better of him.  Sarah Connolly, however, was superb, the timbre attractively warm and tender, but her manner benignly aloof, as befitted the otherworldly being she represented, while Alan Opie was trenchant and authoritative in both his roles, the voice very firm and resonant.

Orchestrally, Oundjian certainly delivered the goods.  Sometimes I thought the allargando markings were taken a little exaggeratedly, but they remained valid artistic choices.  The Wagnerian aspects of the score were marked, with the motifs clearly delineated, and the winds in particular played extremely well.

The chorus was more problematic.  None of it was badly done, but it was rather uneven.  The Demons' Chorus, which is a terrific snarl of a number with a clipped, crisp text into which to get your teeth, lacked both precision and venom, while the orchestra was relishing its stormy role, with sly trombone slides and rasping winds.  The sibilants of the fugue ("Dispossessed, aside thrust") were all over the place.  While they managed the roller-coaster of the second half of "Praise to the Holiest" well, if a little cautiously (it is notoriously tricky), its conclusion should leave the air ringing with the blaze of the final C major chord, which did not happen.  On the other hand, the end of Part 1 was beautifully done, and the distant echo of that music in Part 2, just before the Judgement, was an exquisite murmur of sound.  The last pages, with the lovely "Softly and gently", were as moving as could be desired.

[Next : 15th June]