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Cardinal Newman's poem tells of the journey of a man's soul after
death - Gerontius may be translated roughly as old man. Elgar
was given a copy of the poem in 1889 as a wedding present. But,
while he undoubtedly toyed with the idea of setting it to music
intermittently over the intervening period, the decision to do
so for the 1900 Birmingham festival appears to have been taken
somewhat at the last minute - his earlier ideas for the festival
describe a work which eventually emerged as
The Apostles.
The first performance was not a success. Neither W C Stockley, the
chorus master, nor Hans Richter, the conductor, had grasped the
complexity of the work and allowed insufficient time for
rehearsals. But the more perceptive members of the audience
recognised the work's merit. These included Julius Buths,
director of the Lower Rhine Festival, who staged the work in Dusseldorf
in 1901. The performance, to a packed audience of 2500,
was an unqualified success and was followed in March 1903 by
further acclaimed performances on successive nights - the first
by the Halle Orchestra, under Richter in Manchester, the second
in Hanley with Elgar himself conducting.
Today, the work is undoubtedly the most popular of all Elgar's
choral works, and indeed among the most frequently performed of
all his works. Surely no-one can remain unmoved by the priest's
invocation to Gerontius - as part 1 ends - to 'go forth'
('Proficiscere, anima Christiana'); nor, in part 2, by the chorus
of 'Praise to the Holiest', the words of which were also taken
to form the well-known hymn.
But these excerpts should not be allowed overshadow much other
beautiful writing in the piece. And, while early commentators may have
been wary of the work's essentially Catholic stance (the composer
Charles Villiers Stanford is reported to have said the work 'stank
of incense'), most now are struck more by the dramatic intensity and
integrity of the subject. The work continues to be performed regularly
throughout Britain.
3 October 2000 saw the centenary of the work's first performance,
leading to a much increased interest in the work. In recognition of this interest, and as a service
both to performers
and to visitors to this website, we have expanded our coverage of the work
by adding new pages providing more detailed coverage of the history of the
work and of the coming year's events. Follow the links in the box below to
reach these additional pages.
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