Elgar has been a staple of The Hallé and Sir Mark Elder’s near quarter of a century together, with concert performances and recordings of the symphonies and oratorios achieving considerable success. This season-concluding Elgar festival, consisting of The Dream of Gerontius, The Apostles and The Kingdom performed within a week, appears to have originally been intended to mark the end of Elder’s final season as Music Director; in the event, next season will be his last, but based on tonight’s Gerontius, the festival promises to be a fitting, if early, tribute to a remarkable relationship.
An early hint of the spectacle to come was given by the sheer numbers on the bill, including hundreds of choristers from the Hallé Choir and Hallé Youth Choir, reinforced with alumni from the latter, and a percussion section augmented with the optional extra timpanist solely to play the three bars before the vision of the Almighty. The big set pieces of the evening were carried off with all the expected floor-shaking grandeur, but it was the gentleness of the softer passages which left the strongest impressions here, creating a sense of an extraordinarily spiritual Gerontius.
The orchestra themselves were responsible for much of this atmosphere. The Part 1 prelude opened with a barely audible whisper from the violas and cellos, impressively matched by the bassoon, cor anglais and low brass. Later, a similarly sotto voce opening at the beginning of Part 2 engendered a wonderful sense of cool morning sunlight. This was Elgar firmly in the mould of Wagner, played with as much atmospheric focus as if the lights had just gone down for 4 hours of Lohengrin or Parsifal. The ebb and flow of the drama was superbly realised by Elder, giving the music ample space to breathe without ever compromising on drama.
Among the soloists, most impressive was Alice Coote’s Angel, a role she has performed on many occasions with this orchestra, not least at the Proms and on disc. She captured a sense of both benevolent warmth and reverential devotion in Part 2, singing with utmost control and beauty of sound as well as careful attention to the drama of the text. Her first Alleluia was magically gentle, while her tremblingly pianissimo (and yet stark) confirmation that Gerontius would soon come before God was strikingly haunting.
As Gerontius, Michael Spyres sang with convincing frailty in Part 1, imploring in his pleas of “Pray for me”. He found fuller sound in Part 2, where his clear tenor projected well throughout his range, despite the occasional hiccough. Next to him, Neal Davies’ Priest and Angel of the Agony brought gravitas and comfort to Gerontius’ bedside in Part 1, and pleaded imploringly for his soul in Part 2.
As ever, the massed choirs sang their hearts out for Elder. Of all the big moments these forces have shared over the years – most memorably Meistersinger, Gurrelieder, Mahler 2 and Damnation de Faust – none could match the shattering and seemingly never-ending last note to tonight’s “Praise to the Holiest”. Elsewhere, demons snarled with suitable nastiness. The “Be merciful” in Part 1, later repeated from a sitting position in Part 2, was sung with crystalline purity and immaculate diction. Next weekend’s Apostles and Kingdom promise to be memorable events.
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