Halle Orchestra – conductor Sir Mark Elder; Alice Coote mezzo-soprano; Michael Spyres tenor; Neal Davies bass; Hallé Choir choral director Matthew Hamilton; Hallé Youth Choir and Alumni director Stuart Overington
Surprisingly the number of ‘Gerontius’ performances I have been to over the years has been very small. I don’t think I’ve heard the Halle and Elder perform it before – though I had a ticket for a performance of theirs in 2017 I couldn’t go – some work related crisis……I heard Boult conduct it at the Proms in 1970 and Colin Davis with Anne-Sofie von Otter in 2005. I am pretty sure I heard Janet Baker sing it – possibly with Davis again – at some point in the 70’s.
Why on earth is it that, 120 years on, The Dream of Gerontius remains compellingly popular? It has Newman’s dreadful fusty late Victorian verse, and a Prelude almost embarrassingly over-indebted to Parsifal. The kind of theology embedded within it is alien enough to me, a liberal Anglican, let alone a much much wider secular audience. The character Gerontius often sounds priggish, pompous and over assured of his salvation (though maybe that is the point – however I don’t know how much dramatic subtlety I would credit Newman with……) A large part of what makes the work gripping, I think, is the drama of Part 2 – whatever the theology or assumptions behind it, Newman is undoubtedly daring in envisaging what being a soul might feel like and what it might talk about after death, and Gerontius’ priggishness is undoubtedly deflated by the judgement he receives. And the glorious music, of course – to me, although Part 1 has some lovely musical moments, the work really starts to take flight at the ‘Profiscere’ and continues at an exalted level after that both dramatically and musically. I think also – though some would disagree – that the Wagnerian echoes (again Amfortas stands rather obviously behind Gerontius’ agonies in Part 1) recede in Part 2, and Elgar’s authentic voice breaks through more strongly.
A word in parenthesis about unswitched off or unsilenced mobile phones……occasionally I’ve heard a notification call at a distance, which has been momentarily distracting but not really an annoyance. This time though, just as Michael Spyres was finishing his (very moving) ‘Take me away’, a 5 note notification call opened up right next to me – 5 rows from the front of the stalls. I thought it must be mine, so loud and close was it, even though I knew in my head I had switched the thing off (but had I leaned on it so that it had come on by mistake….?) and I spent a minute panicking, into the Angel’s Farewell….in the end I knew it couldn’t have been mine (and I confirmed this was the case when I got out of the hall) but it was very upsetting and disturbing, caused sadly not by somebody careless and unheeding but by someone elderly who clearly had forgotten to check.
This was a very fine performance indeed. Part of Elder’s way with this music, and the weight of tradition the orchestra carries with it, is to be unrushed, to let the music unfold naturally, to flow like a broad river, but without ever seeming to be sluggish ; the Prelude sounded grand but not grandiloquent; the ‘Profiscere’ was deftly handled with just the right amount of kick as the choir takes over from the bass; ‘Praise to the Holiest’ sounded expansive, but not in a loose way – just very much alive, with all the details able to tell. The orchestra at the end was just radiant, as the Angel’s Farewell surged. Perhaps my only quibble was that the orchestra didn’t quite produce enough of a blindingly vehement audio-flash when Gerontius faces God, finally
Michael Spyres is a ‘baritenor’ (not a phrase I’ve come across before) but who is clearly up for all the demands of this role. I thought he was very good indeed – he had the power for ‘Sanctus Fortis, Sanctus Deus’, and ‘Take me away’, and the last two lines from the latter were very moving. I look forward to hearing him at the Proms in the Trojans in early September. Neal Davies was a good, though not outstanding bass. However Alice Coote was quite exceptional – every phrase was beautifully pointed, every word crystal clear. Her soft singing at ‘My work is done’ and ‘Softly and gently’ was absolutely beautiful – the latter I thought eclipsed even Janet Baker’s recorded account with Simon Rattle (which is the highest praise I can offer). The choirs sounded marvellous – ‘Praise to the Holiest’ was really thrilling – the soprano wave at the climax was spine-tingling and the final note of that section was seemingly endless, and glorious
A great performance then of a work that does need inspirational leadership of the sort that Elder provided to engage a modern audience. The audience seemed to regard it all as a bit of an event and unfortunately the applause started before the measured pause at the end was over. A pity….like the mobile call………….
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