SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL

Elgar’s monumental oratorio - or Poem set to Music, as he called it - The Dream of Gerontius is an excellent choice for a summer festival, and Chicago’s Grant Park Orchestra and Chorus delivered an inspired performance of the work.  It is certainly a special occasion whenever this work is performed, and under Carlos Kalmar’s baton, this Gerontius was fresh and exciting. Soloists, orchestra, and chorus worked seamlessly together to create a convincing and polished whole for a work that can sometimes be too demanding for other ensembles.

In the tradition of the dream visions found in English literature, the text by John Cardinal Newman describes the turmoil of an unnamed soul at the approach of death and his journey in the afterlife to its spiritual resting place. Overtly Roman Catholic in detail, the text is ultimately less sectarian in presenting eternal themes associated with the meaning of life and the survival of the soul beyond physical existence. It is clear that Elgar was inspired by Newman’s text, because of the extraordinary music he produced for the oratorio. Completed in 1900 for its same year premiere in at the Triennial Festival in Birmingham, England, the two-part work stands well alongside the symphonic Enigma Variations composed the previous year. Where the Enigma Variations is, in a sense, a more epigrammatic work, Elgar used  The Dream of Gerontius to explore musical ideas more expansively . Principal conductor of the Grant Park Music Festival, Carlos Kalmar gave the score a fine reading both in making the work’s distinctive structure clearand delivering an expressive and passionate performance.

Neither is a simple task, since the score has complexities which require a deft hand. The orchestral portions, like the opening prelude, contains some of Elgar’s most sublime slow movements, and the vocal sections demand not only careful phrasing, but also require a precise and adept ensemble to make the progressions seem almost spontaneous. Kalmar paid fine attention to these and other details. His approach to the prelude set the tone for the performance with carefully crafted dynamics drawing the audience in emotionally to the first sung portions of the text, in which the soul, as embodied by the tenor, states his qualms about his imminent passing. The Canadian tenor John Mac Master made the role his own with fine vocalism complemented by excellent diction and appropriate expressiveness. Those unfamiliar with the text could easily hear every word of Newman’s libretto presented by Mac Master, with subtle inflections to underline his characterisations of the dying old man’s fearful journey – as The Soul - towards peace. His singing was engaging and the textual message vivid.

Paul Whelan offered a fine and sonorous presence as the priest in the first part and the Angel of Agony in the second. His resonant bass-baritone voice commanded attention from the first lines he uttered, and its rich timbre helped to add conviction to the character he was conveying. Yet as the Guardian Angel, Alysson McHardy stood out with her seamless mezzo-soprano voice.  McHardy has a distinctive lower register, which is nicely articulate and easy and which her upper register complements perfectly, such that she gave give a sense of soaring emotion to some of the more demanding passages, like the evocation that opens of “Choir of Evangelicals” in the second part. She worked harmoniously with Ma cMaster, as though the two were engaged in a dramatic scene from an opera by Verdi. Her  delivery conveyed a fervor, which accentuated Elgar’s music, a quality which gave a literal fresh voice to this intense and demanding work. There was particular intensity in the section in which the angel describes the “mortal” who was given the stigmata – a reference by Cardinal Newman to the fate of St. Francis of Assisi. A similar vividness emerged in the section in which The Soul hears voices, and the angel explains them as the presence of the living friends around the bed of the dying man. In these and other passages McHardy exemplary fine musicianship in her command of the role, which mediates bothe musically and dramatically between the solo tenor and the chorus.

In giving voice to the variously named ensembles of Assistants, Evangelicals and Demons, the Grant Park Music Festival Chorus, directed by Christopher Bell, was also effective. Beyond the nicely blended sound, the precision of the Chorus was matched by their emotional intensity, particularly in the two sections in which Elgar sets Newman’s text “Praise to the Holiest.” If some members of the audience applauded prematurely at the end of one of these sections before the conclusion of the second part, it was because of the chorus sheer expressivity. The other choral passages were also well executed, with the final section ending the oratorio with powerful intensity.

This was a remarkable performance, which stands among the finest the Grant Park Music Festival has given in recent years. As demanding as Elgar’s score can be, the chorus, orchestra, and soloists met the challenges superbly under Carlos Kalmar’s masterful direction.  While it is possible to quibble about some of the ambient sounds which sometimes competed with the performance on stage, the evening was memorable for its immediate and effective interpretation of this venerable work. It is a tribute to the efforts of these performers that members of the audience commented afterwards about hoping to hear the work again in further live performances. One can only hope that these will be as musically satisfying since everyone who had the opportunity to hear this Festival performance will, no doubt, recall it fondly for years to come. Both this concert and the one given on the previous night were free and open to the public, as part of this summer-long event.

James L Zychowicz