Cambridge Philharmonic Society
Elgar’s Dream of Gerontius
Ely Cathedral
Saturday 16 June 2007

‘This is the best of me’, Elgar wrote at the end of the score of The Dream of Gerontius; and a large and clearly appreciative audience on Ely cathedral on 16 June seemed to concur. The Cambridge Philharmonic Society, worthily celebrating the 150th anniversary of the composer’s birth, also seemed to be in full agreement.

Conductor Tim Redmond seems to have taken the measure of the Society’s singers and players and they responded sensitively and with great intensity to his interpretation of the work. The orchestra played the prelude with a splendid sense both of the drama and the majesty of the piece and set the stage for what turned out to be one of the best-paced and most sensitively-shaped performances in my recollection.

That Mr Redmond underlined the structure and the drama of the work did not mean any neglect of its reflective and spiritual qualities. Some well-loved details were a little underplayed, but there was an impressive overall coherence and balance of light and shade. The chorus, skilfully trained by Christopher Whitton, took in their stride with equal skill such thrilling moments as ‘Go forth in the name of angels’ in Part I and ‘Praise to the Holiest’ in Part II, the fervent prayers for the dying Gerontius, the vicious screams of the demons claiming souls for Hell and a gentle murmur of sound as his guardian angel bids him farewell at the end.. Mr Redmond did not, incidentally, indulge in a nostalgic wallow here he took note of Elgar’s tempo marking of Andante tranquillo, which allowed the angel’s arioso-like declamation of Newman’s text to sound natural and intimate rather than smoochy and nostalgic.

Which brings me to the soloists. Anna Burford described in the programme as a mezzo, but with the full bloom of a contralto in her lower register, has the makings of a great interpreter of the Angel’s role. The voice is there, the presence is there and the musicianship is there and she looks the part already. Let us hope that she will soon work out her own individual interpretation of the details. Christopher Lemmings played nicely in to her hand in the long duet passages at the opening of Part II, and used his very individual voice expressively throughout, but had some trouble from where I was sitting in ‘riding’ the orchestra from time to time. The promising young bass-baritone Daniel Grice was a splendidly authoritative priest in part one, but I felt a somewhat stolid Angel of the Agony in Part II.

The performance was dedicated to the memory of Nick Toller, who served the Phil well as a string player and programme-note writer for many years. Both his memory and Elgar’s were admirably served by the Society and its conductor.

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