MUSICAL STORYTELLING: THE DREAM OF GERONTIUS
Alongside Handel’s Messiah and Britten’s War Requiem, Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius is one of the most important British music pieces ever written. The strong lyrics, written by revered English theologian and poet John Henry Newman, tell the story of a dying man whose life is being scrutinised by God. In the music, Elgar unites British elegance with Wagnerian richness of detail in an affecting way. Don’t miss the Berwaldhallen premiere of this rightly immeasurably popular piece. Friday´s concert will be livestreamed at Play.
It’s no exaggeration to say that it’s a big event when Berwaldhallen plays Edward Elgar’s magnificent The Dream of Gerontius, considered one of Elgar’s best pieces, for the first time. Three renowned singers carry the soloist parts; tenor Andrew Staples, who recently recorded The Dream of Gerontius with Staatskapelle Berlin and Daniel Barenboim, multitalented baritone Simon Keenlyside who, like Staples, has visited Berwaldhallen many times before, and celebrated mezzo-soprano Ann Hallenberg who has recently started her tenure as Artist in Residence at the Drottningholm Palace Theatre.
A devout Catholic, Elgar himself chose well-liked English cardinal John Henry Newman’s poem The Dream of Gerontius to base the piece on. Newman converted to Catholicism as an adult, and in the poem, he explores the Catholic faith’s belief in the soul’s journey from the moment of death through Paradise to God, and on to Purgatory to be cleansed. In his life, Newman was a respected theologian, and spent a lot of time helping the poor and the sick. On Sunday the 13th of October, he will be declared a saint by Pope Francis, a significant event which makes this performance all the more relevant.
The first part of the piece shows the anxious Gerontius – the name comes from the Greek ‘geron,’ meaning old man – who is on his deathbed, surrounded by his friends. They pray to Mary, to the disciples and angels to ask for mercy for Gerontius’ soul. He himself is filled with anxiety and fear in the face of death, but a priest urges him to move on: ‘Go forth upon thy journey, Christian soul!’
In the second part, Gerontius’ soul is led by an angel to the meeting with God. On the way, they pass evil spirits and demons waiting to take the condemned to Hell. The angel who visited Jesus in Gethsemane promises joy, but warns about the pain of Jesus’ suffering. From earth, the voices of Gerontius’ friends still echo: ‘Be merciful, be gracious, spare him, O Lord.’ In one violent, instrumental outburst, Gerontius’ soul is judged by God in an instant, and in the end, Gerontius meets the choir of souls in the cleansing fires of Purgatory, with a promise of salvation.
The original performance of The Dream of Gerontius in Birmingham on the 3rd of October 1900 was a failure due to a poorly prepared choir and unwell soloists. Musicians and critics saw the greatness of the piece, however, and when it was performed in Düsseldorf and then in London the following year, it really had a breakthrough. Richard Strauss celebrated Elgar as the reinventor of English music, and German newspapers described Elgar as ‘one of contemporary music’s leading figures.’ In Sweden, The Dream of Gerontius was likely first performed in 1904 at the Royal Swedish Opera, led by none other than Wilhelm Stenhammar. In 1912, it was performed again, at the Hedvig Eleonora Church in Stockholm, with Hugo Alfvén conducting.
Text: David Saulesco and Henry Larsson
Participants
The Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra is a multiple-award-winning ensemble renowned for its high artistic standard and stylistic breadth, as well as collaborations with the world’s finest composers, conductors, and soloists. It regularly tours all over Europe and the world and has an extensive and acclaimed recording catalogue.
Daniel Harding has been Music Director of the SRSO since 2007, and since 2019 also its Artistic Director. His tenure will last throughout the 2024/2025 season. Two of the orchestra’s former chief conductors, Herbert Blomstedt and Esa-Pekka Salonen, have since been named Conductors Laureate, and continue to perform regularly with the orchestra.
The Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra performs at Berwaldhallen, concert hall of the Swedish Radio, and is a cornerstone of Swedish public service broadcasting. Its concerts are heard weekly on the Swedish classical radio P2 and regularly on national public television SVT. Several concerts are also streamed on-demand on Berwaldhallen Play and broadcast globally through the EBU.
32 professional choristers make up the Swedish Radio Choir: a unique, dynamic instrument hailed by music-lovers and critics all over the world. The Swedish Radio Choir performs at Berwaldhallen, concert hall of the Swedish Radio, as well as on tours all over the country and the world. Also, they are heard regularly by millions of listeners on Swedish Radio P2, Berwaldhallen Play and globally through the EBU.
The award-winning Latvian conductor Kaspars Putniņš was appointed Chief Conductor of the Swedish Radio Choir in 2020. Since January 2019, its choirmaster is French orchestral and choral conductor Marc Korovitch, with responsibility for the choir’s vocal development.
The Swedish Radio Choir was founded in 1925, the same year as Sweden’s inaugural radio broadcasts, and gave its first concert in May that year. Multiple acclaimed and award-winning albums can be found in the choir’s record catalogue. Late 2023 saw the release of Kaspars Putniņš first album with the choir: Robert Schumann’s Missa sacra, recorded with organist Johan Hammarström.
Mikaeli chamber choir is one of Sweden’s most well-reputed choirs, with a broad and accomplished repertoire. Based in Stockholm, the choir comprises 32 experienced singers. Ever since the start in 1970 it has been led by Anders Eby, who is a professor of choral conducting and a conductor and teacher with various international assignments.
The ensemble’s passion for Swedish choral music has led to a large number of first performances, commissions and personal relationships with our greatest composers of choral music. The choir and its conductor also have an interest in historical music, which has contributed to the breadth of its repertoire, treating audiences to everything from female 19th century composers to polyphonic renaissance music.
Over the years, the choir has had extensive collaborations with Swedish orchestras and soloists. Mikaeli chamber choir appears on well over 20 recordings and countless radio performances, as well as concerts and performances on most of Stockholm’s major scenes. In an effort to further these traditions, the choir has also for many years arranged workshops and master classes for young, aspiring conductors.
During almost 50 years, the choir has been a mainstay of Swedish choral life. Since July 2018, Mikaeli chamber choir operates as an independent group.
Daniel Harding is Music and Artistic Director of the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, with whom in 2022 he celebrated his 15-year anniversary. In the 2014/2015 season, he devised and curated the celebrated Interplay Festival, featuring concerts and related inspirational talks with renowned artists and academics. As Artistic Director, he continues this type of influential programming. Harding is also Conductor Laureate of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, with whom he has worked for over 20 years, and Music Director of Youth Music Culture, The Greater Bay Area in China. The 2024/2025 season will be his first as Music Director at the Academia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome.
Harding is a regular visitor to the world’s foremost orchestras, including the Wiener Philharmoniker, Berliner Philharmoniker, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Staatskapelle Dresden and the Orchestra Filarmonica della Scala. In the US, he has appeared with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, The Cleveland Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, and the San Francisco Symphony. A renowned opera conductor, he has led acclaimed productions at the Teatro alla Scala Milan, Wiener Staatsoper, Royal Opera House at Covent Garden, and at the Aix-en-Provence and Salzburg Festivals. He was Music Director of the Orchestre de Paris, the Anima Mundi festival of Pisa, and Principal Guest Conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra.
Daniel Harding tours regularly with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, performing at prestigious venues all over Europe and the world, and has recorded several acclaimed and award-winning albums with the orchestra. His tenure as Music and Artistic Director will last throughout the 2024/2025 season. “It is increasingly rare that the relationship between a conductor and an orchestra not only lasts for more than a decade, but keeps growing,” he says about working with the orchestra.
In 2002, Harding was awarded the title Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Government, and in 2017 nominated to the position Officier des Arts et des Lettres. In 2012, he was elected a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music. In 2021, he was appointed Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire. Daniel Harding grew up in Oxford, England, and played trumpet before taking up conducting in his late teens. He is also, since 2016, a qualified airline pilot.
Ann Hallenberg is hailed as one of the world’s leading mezzo-sopranos, recently awarded the Opera Prize 2019 by music magazine Tidskriften Opera. She performs on stages worldwide such as Teatro alla Scala Milan, Teatro Real Madrid, Théâtre de la Monnaie Brussels, Theater an der Wien, Royal Swedish Opera and the Norwegian National Opera. Her opera repertoire includes a large number of roles in operas by Rossini, Mozart, Gluck, Handel, Bizet and Massenet, among others.
She is also a highly sought-after concert singer who has performed with orchestras such as the Berliner Philharmoniker, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Danish Radio Orchestra and London Symphony Orchestra. She enjoys particularly close collaboration with ensembles Les talens lyriques, Il Pomo d’oro and Europa galante.
Among her recent achievements are the title role in Handel’s Agrippina in Halle and Bucharest with Les talens lyriques, Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius in Berwaldhallen conducted by Daniel Harding, and additionally, a gala concert in Moscow with chamber orchestra Musica Viva, arias composed for Farinelli with Les talens lyriques in Arras and another gala concert at the Salzburg Festival. She has made over 40 recordings. Her latest solo album, Carnevale 1729, has received rave reviews.
Gerontius
The tenor Andrew Staples is a diligent concert singer who has performed with conductors such as Simon Rattle, Daniel Harding, Andrew Manze and Robin Ticciati. Most recently, he has played Froh in Wagner’s Das Rheingold at the Royal Opera House in London. He also toured Europe with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and Simon Rattle, performing Bach’s St John’s Passion, as well as with the Orchestre de Paris and Daniel Harding, performing Britten’s War Requiem. In addition, he will soon debut at both Deutsche Staatsoper Berlin and the Metropolitan Opera. Andrew Staples is also a frequent guest at Berwaldhallen where he will be performing several times during the season of 2019-2020.
Prästen och Dödsångestens ängel
Programme
It’s no exaggeration to say that it’s a big event when Berwaldhallen plays Edward Elgar’s magnificent The Dream of Gerontius, considered one of Elgar’s best pieces, for the first time. Three renowned singers carry the soloist parts; tenor Andrew Staples, who recently recorded The Dream of Gerontius with Staatskapelle Berlin and Daniel Barenboim, multitalented baritone Simon Keenlyside who, like Staples, has visited Berwaldhallen many times before, and celebrated mezzo-soprano Ann Hallenberg who has recently started her tenure as Artist in Residence at the Drottningholm Palace Theatre.
A devout Catholic, Elgar himself chose well-liked English cardinal John Henry Newman’s poem The Dream of Gerontius to base the piece on. Newman converted to Catholicism as an adult, and in the poem, he explores the Catholic faith’s belief in the soul’s journey from the moment of death through Paradise to God, and on to Purgatory to be cleansed. In his life, Newman was a respected theologian, and spent a lot of time helping the poor and the sick. On Sunday the 13th of October, he will be declared a saint by Pope Francis, a significant event which makes this performance all the more relevant.
The first part of the piece shows the anxious Gerontius – the name comes from the Greek ‘geron,’ meaning old man – who is on his deathbed, surrounded by his friends. They pray to Mary, to the disciples and angels to ask for mercy for Gerontius’ soul. He himself is filled with anxiety and fear in the face of death, but a priest urges him to move on: ‘Go forth upon thy journey, Christian soul!’
In the second part, Gerontius’ soul is led by an angel to the meeting with God. On the way, they pass evil spirits and demons waiting to take the condemned to Hell. The angel who visited Jesus in Gethsemane promises joy, but warns about the pain of Jesus’ suffering. From earth, the voices of Gerontius’ friends still echo: ‘Be merciful, be gracious, spare him, O Lord.’ In one violent, instrumental outburst, Gerontius’ soul is judged by God in an instant, and in the end, Gerontius meets the choir of souls in the cleansing fires of Purgatory, with a promise of salvation.
The original performance of The Dream of Gerontius in Birmingham on the 3rd of October 1900 was a failure due to a poorly prepared choir and unwell soloists. Musicians and critics saw the greatness of the piece, however, and when it was performed in Düsseldorf and then in London the following year, it really had a breakthrough. Richard Strauss celebrated Elgar as the reinventor of English music, and German newspapers described Elgar as ‘one of contemporary music’s leading figures.’ In Sweden, The Dream of Gerontius was likely first performed in 1904 at the Royal Swedish Opera, led by none other than Wilhelm Stenhammar. In 1912, it was performed again, at the Hedvig Eleonora Church in Stockholm, with Hugo Alfvén conducting.
Text: David Saulesco and Henry Larsson
Approximate concert length: 1 hour 40 min (no intermission)
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