Halle Orchestra – conductor Sir Mark Elder; Gemma Summerfield soprano; Sarah Connolly mezzo-soprano; Andrew Staples, tenor; Ashley Riches bass-baritone; Hallé Choir and Associates choral director Matthew Hamilton; Ad Solem (University of Manchester Choral Programme) choral director Robert Guy
Guess when the complete “Kingdom” was premiered at the Proms…..1920? 1934? No…1999 (Apostles 1990)– which shows the deep neglect of the Apostles and The Kingdom for many years
Though, as I’ve mentioned, I never had that much of an affection for the Apostles till relatively recently, I have loved The Kingdom ever since my teenage years, when I listened repeatedly to the late 1960’s Boult recording – particularly the passage in Part 1 from ‘ And suddenly there came from heaven a sound as of the rushing of a mighty wind’ to the end of Part 1, which I associate with summer sunsets blazing over South London as I looked out 16 floors up in our Council flat in Deptford listening to the Kingdom, particularly the glorious chorus ending that passage. I interpreted this work not at all in a Christian sense at the time, but in the sense Elgar probably meant it, a celebration of something like Mahler’s ‘Creator Spiritus’, a life-giving creative spirit that leads us forward into new creative realms (although maybe at this stage Elgar was still a Christian – he definitely wasn’t later).
Unfortunately, I had serious transport problems with this concert, caused by rail infrastructure unable to deal with heat. I was due to arrive at Manchester Piccadilly 1hr.30 mins before the concert; the train arrived at Manchester in fact an hour late, only 25 mins before the concert and I then had to rush at as much of a run as I could manage, getting to the Bridgewater Hall with 5 mins to spare. I then discovered during the interval that the last train back to my village was cancelled and I made the difficult decision to abandon the 2nd half of The Kingdom, not wanting to spend a long time getting back home by other longer and more expensive routes. As I happens the train I then caught was 30 mins late leaving Manchester Piccadilly so I could have stayed for the 2nd half after all…… All very irritating….
But this saga does suggest an issue with the Kingdom – it has a less well-balanced structure . Whereas I would never dream of leaving a performance of the Apostles half way through – to miss the glorious ending would be criminal; if necessary I’d walk home! However, the Kingdom has a slightly different, lower profile, second half and doesn’t have the massed grand choral outpouring at the end that the Apostles does. There is the beautiful aria “The sun goeth down” sung on the Boult recording incomparably by Margaret Price and a lot of beautiful slightly dream-like music. The undeniable heart of the music is the first Upper Room sequence and everything after that seems a bit of an anti-climax
Elder started off the work wonderfully, with the Prelude, one of the greatest single pieces of Elgar’s music, offering a new R. Strauss-ian energy to the already rich sound of ‘The Apostles’. Elder’s handling of the Prelude was slower than Boult’s, lingering lovingly and in my view justifiably on many of the twilight colours of this work. Elgar’s own recording – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=phTdWz-jvSA&t=246s is quite remarkable and very different to Elder – faster and with more abrupt speed changes – I assume Boult (who must have heard Elgar conduct the Kingdom on many occasions) was leaning more to the Elgar mode. Elder’s was I think just as convincingly yearning and emotional, in a more structured maybe less jagged way
The choral forces were hugely impressive in the Upper Room scene. The penultimate soprano top whatever ‘Glorified’ was among the most amazing sounds I have ever heard in a big choral performance of this kind, and the end note, with a sort of choral glossolalia was wonderfully done, brass blazing. The whole sequence of the music in the Upper Room in the first half worked all the magic and more it has ever done for me – the whirl of the orchestra as the holy fire spreads in the room, Peter’s beautiful passage about visions, the orchestral fluttering at the reference to the Resurrection, the gradual build -up of ‘In the Name of Jesus Christ’. When I heard Elder and the Halle perform this maybe 15 years ago I thought his conducting of this passage was a bit sluggish, but this time I thought it had energy and passion alongside that ability to let the music well up naturally when it needs to that I’ve mentioned before. Ashley Riches sang outstandingly as Peter and put his heart and soul into his performance – you really felt he had become Peter during the performance. Sarah Connolly and Gemma Summerfield (not a name I’ve come across before) were excellent.
I heard and felt my adolescent self calling at the end of the first half, and, just as I used to take the stylus off the record at that point, so I happily left the hall. I shall listen to the Radio 3 recording in due course
John's musical journey 