S
U
I
T
N
O
R
E
G
*
‘GP.O. SEASON
THE “Dream of Gerontius,” by
Elgar,
brought
the
Guildford
.Care.was. #ppligd’ not 1o drown
Phiiharmonic Orchestra’s season
to a spiritual close at the Civic.
the soloists, .exident in such passagés as the early muted accom-
The dréams of man, for here
and hereafter, have absorbed and
English was the tenor singing
Gerontius ‘and one of his best
qualities was meticulous articula-
paniment
Hall on Saturday.
inspired
Keats
to
poets
from
Cardinal
Bunyan
Newman
and
would fain sleep.”
His
£
S cer e
though
affinities to Sir Adrian Boult.
his
was
the
least
role
contralto, Fiona Kimm, was singing
the
'Angel
and
yielded
siderable promise. Yet a
sheer
power
detracted
con-|
lack of
from
the
performance at the receiving end |
— which' is the important place |
after all.
’
Philharmonic
his approach
reminded of Mr. Handley's eatlier
inter-
quantitatively
of
the
three
soloists, he was perhaps the best
of them qualitatively. The young
this cathedral-like edifice:
the first orchestral pages were
emitted those strangulated string
cries so poignantly Elgarian. It
is
in Elgar that one is often
;
impeccable
In contrast, the operatic back-
choir,
of reéflective
inexorability:
like
‘the philosophy in its whole theme
of life, death and rebirth. From
an
ground
of* the
bass,
Thomas
Allen, served
to add warmth to|
an
unwavering
vocal
line.
Al-
Vernon
setting.
soloists, even
Handley seemed to be affected
most authentically. by the scoreand = structured
its
developing|
drama with an inner profundity,
and assurance, focusing, securing,
the position and prominence of
each cornerstone, each column, in
The G.P.O. and
Choir responded to
was
in
this experience., which may
have been felt inwardly yet was
not fully conveyed externally. One
felt his voice evoked Benjamin
Britten more than Elgar.
sufficient human feeling and perhaps passion to show that Geron-
orchestra,
Gerald
prétation in one sense, yet one
returns to the need for passion|
The oratorio is really beyond
emotion and experience. So how
should it best be tackled? Not
as melodramatic music, yet with
conductor,. \
erontius.
tion in any number of places:;
“Be with me, Lord, in my extremity,”
for instance,
and even
when
singing
softly:
“And
I
and
it
was
Newman
who ' wrote
Gerontius.
Elgar
composed= his
masterpiece in 1900 and when it
was done, he declared"‘flns is’
the best of me . . .
.
- pusds-Sia
hall Jilee 4y
to
Elgar never aimed at an all-]
enveloping sound for sound’s sake
|
here, and Mr. Handiey, with the |
GP.O.,
fed
by
Hugh
Bean,
brought out all the more the
splashes like the strings / trombone / tympani outburst following soon after the “Miserere.”
The
some
Philharmonic
fine
possessed,”
their
me ...
In
the
to
end,
had
the
*“dis-
and
*gen-
sequences
among
the orchestra rose
climaxes
leadmg’ on
in
““hubbub,”
erous
heart”
others. While
to
Choir
moments,
the
iike
the
Soul’s
“The
:
one
“Take
;
Dream of|
Gerontius” is perhaps bevond the
|
sensual — more spiritual, sublime.—J.F.
T.