Elgar’s nice choral work, maybe the best composed in Britain since Handel, has now had 4 performances on the Proms this century, every with a special conductor and trio of soloists. The newest, in a crammed Albert Corridor, was given by the London Philharmonic performed by Edward Gardner, with Allan Clayton, Jamie Barton and James Platt because the soloists and the mixed choirs of the Hallé and the London Philharmonic.
The live performance at all times promised to be one of many highlights of the present season, and Gardner’s account, launched with a measured therapy of the prelude, and reserving its moments of best energy for the set items of the second half, usually didn't disappoint. The choral sound from in extra of 250 voices was majestic, even when with that variety of singers the trickier corners of the Demons’ Refrain weren't ideally nimble; the hush of the ultimate pages was superbly managed and, like the remainder of the efficiency, was by no means pushed or overplayed by Gardner.
Issues of steadiness between voices and a suitably wealthy orchestral sound have been usually not problematic, excluding Barton’s Angel, who sounded surprisingly underpowered and undistinguished. Her diction was vague, her excessive notes effortful – the Alleluia simply earlier than Gerontius goes to his judgment was a hit-and-hope affair – and her supply of the Farewell as indifferent and chilly as her description of Saint Francis’s stigmata had been matter of reality.
The opposite soloists have been first charge. Platt’s contribution because the priest and the Angel of the Agony have been as sonorous and implacable as anybody might need, nevertheless it was inevitably Clayton’s excellent efficiency that dominated issues. The function of Gerontius calls for a singer someplace between a lyric tenor and a heroic operatic voice, and Clayton suits that precisely, as spectacular within the dying moments of half one as within the dialogues with the Angel within the second and his ultimate impassioned “Take me away”, after Gardner’s beautifully paced buildup. It was a efficiency suggesting that Clayton is now the definitive interpreter of the function in British music right now.
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