Simon Halsey on Edward Elgar’s “The Dream of Gerontius” (16 min.)

You could almost talk of an “Elgar Festival” which took place in the Berlin Philharmonie and the Digital Concert Hall in winter 2011/12. In December, Donald Runnicles conducted the First Symphony, and in February, the famous Enigma Variations followed under the direction of Sir Simon Rattle. The most voluminous contribution to this mini festival was 14th January’s monumental oratorio The Dream of Gerontius with Daniel Barenboim conducting. Simon Halsey gives an introduction to the concert and talks about the German-English choral tradition.