Dream of Gerontius: LPO Edward Gardner

[Rcartes]

I wasn't going to listen to the broadcast since I thought I didn't like Gerontius much (probably because of the religiosity), but I heard it sort of by accident last nightand was struck by the beauty of the music. Terrific!

[Alison]

Really enjoyable and highly encouraging stuff from Mr Gardner.

[Alf-Prufrock]

I am afraid I thought I detected some roughness in Paul Groves's voice. He is a wonderful, full-throated tenor, of course, but was he perhaps just off top-form? I certainly thought his performance at the Proms with Elder superior in his clear, forthright manner. I hope he is not over-using his lovely voice.

But I enjoyed this performance enormously - and I heard things I've never heard before in the detail, especially in the choral sections.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I'm hard to please with Elgar as few can match Barbirolli or Boult. But this was quite superb.

[Petrushka]

Surely a candidate for CD issue on the LPO label?

[Chris Newman]

Surely a candidate for CD issue on the LPO label?

I do hope so, Petrushka. This was the best since Barbirolli and Boult.

I am afraid I thought I detected some roughness in Paul Groves's voice.

I noticed this at the Salisbury performance. He sounded slightly out of sorts at the beginning of Part Two. He recovered but in both performances took a low version at an early climactic point of the "Take me away" section "Which ne'er can cease to throb and pine" to preserve his voice for the end. It was a magnificent performance though.

I recall John Mitchinson almost losing his voice at a Boult Prom in the first half and making a wonderful recovery after a break at the interval. Elgar was not experienced at writing for the "operatic" voice. As a result in Part One he requires Gerontius to begin as a character tenor (old and croaky!!) with a touch of lyric, then suddenly become a helden-tenor before returning to lyric. In Part Two he is mostly lyric but again has to finish as a helden-tenor. In JM's performance it was the return to lyric for the latter part of Part One that stretched him. Gerontius is a massively complex part for any singer.

Each tenor brings different nuances to the role. Heddle Nash is just so beautiful. He could be singing the telephone directory and it would mean so much to any listener with a heart. When I started the thread I forgot to mention Alexander Young who also was utterly beautiful and Italianate. They are the bel canto singers of Gerontius. Peter Pears on the Britten recording brings an extraordinary feeling for the words as does the fairly elderly Nicolai Gedda for Boult, a lieder singer's approach. Paul Grove, I think was similar to them, as was Gerald English. Richard Lewis seems to come somewhere between with Barbirolli: he can be heard coughing at one point (though that could have been Sir John's smoker's cough) and supposedly had a cold at the recording session.

I really hope that this Gardner version becomes a recording. Why not? like Barbirolli he can have another go when he is in his sixties.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Alexander Young - I wish I'd heard him sing Gerontius. He sang the part of St John in Boult's recording of "The Kingdom" - quite superb.

[Curalach]

I really hope that this Gardner version becomes a recording. Why not? like Barbirolli he can have another go when he is in his sixties.

I agree Chris, although they will have some work to do to remove some very intrusive coughing.
I recorded the performance to CD and listened to it again this afternoon. It really is a well thought performance.
Ed Gardner seems to me a fine successor to Handley and Hickox.