Prom 37 (10.8.12): Elgar – The Apostles

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Friday 10 August at 6.45 p.m.
Royal Albert Hall

Elgar: The Apostles (120 mins)

Rebecca Evans soprano (Blessed Virgin/Angel Gabriel)
Alice Coote mezzo-soprano (Mary Magdalene)
Paul Groves tenor (St John/Narrator)
Jacques Imbrailo baritone (Jesus)
Iain Paterson bass-baritone (St Peter)
Clive Bayley bass (Judas)
Hallé Choir (formerly Hallé Chorus)
Hallé Youth Choir
London Philharmonic Choir
Hallé Orchestra
Sir Mark Elder conductor

Mark Elder conducts the Hallé and a distinguished cast of singers in one of the English choral tradition's major works: Elgar's dramatic and Biblical oratorio The Apostles. Elgar explores the inner feelings of Judas Iscariot with dramatic intensity, and Christ's anguished cry from the cross becomes a wordless lament.

Elgar conceived the idea for The Apostles as a schoolboy, but the project came to fruition only in 1903 - after both The Dream of Gerontius and a visit to Bayreuth to hear Wagner's The Ring and Parsifal.

[Resurrection Man]

I have high hopes for this one. I believe that almost the same line-up are releasing a CD next month. Should be good. My first Prom of the year!

[VodkaDilc]

I have high hopes for this one. I believe that almost the same line-up are releasing a CD next month. Should be good. My first Prom of the year!

My second. It's a lovely work; I have a set of LPs signed by Boult somewhere (unplayed for some years.)

[AmpH]

I have high hopes for this one. I believe that almost the same line-up are releasing a CD next month. Should be good. My first Prom of the year!

The CD is currently slated for release on 3 September 2012.

[Petrushka]

This will be my 5th visit to the Proms this season. I have the Boult recording on CD but have never heard the work live, one of the very few major Elgar works of which I can say that.

[Simon B]

Prom 6 of 18 for me this season...

Petrushka - if tonight's performance is akin to a carbon copy of the one given in May in Manchester, it should make as compelling a case for this work as you're likely to hear.

I don't get on with Mark Elder's interpretations of a lot of repertoire, but no conductor in recent years (in various performances with the Halle, LSO and LPO) has come near to him in major Elgar works (Symphs 1&2, Gerontius, Kingdom, Apostles, Music Makers, Vln C etc).

In particular, he made maximum emphasis of the sonically dramatic moments and passages of rather extraordinary orchestration that there are distributed throughout the Apostles. Vital to counterbalance the otherwise slightly prolix tendencies in the work.

I'm looking forward to it (though I suspect it'll be boiling in the RAH tonight).

[AjAjAjH]

I agree with what has been written about Mark Elder's Elgar in Simon B's post (though I don't agree with the rest).

I was at the Manchester performance in May and am still living with what I heard and can't wait for the CD to come out.

From the programme notes, Mark Elder has thoroughly researched this piece. So it has an additional small choir of 9 men (9 Apostles) as well as the main soloists.

He has found a Sofur player. Probably the most authentic performance since Elgar himself last conducted it.

If it is anything like the Manchester performance, it will be thrilling. Listen to it and enjoy.

Such a pity it is not being televised.

[pmartel]

Not knowing this work, I'm totally intrigued.

Having missed the first few minutes, I've been truly enjoying hearing this.

This is the FIRST time I've heard this work and will be interested to hear the comments.

[Alison]

I take a recommendation from Simon B very seriously indeed and so I look forward to getting to know

this work under the direction of the sometimes unsatisfying Sir Mark.

[VodkaDilc]

Despite the heat in the RAH it was an enjoyable concert. The outstanding soloist (to my mind) was Jacques Imbrailo as Jesus; while the women seemed slightly ordinary on this occasion. Great orchestral and choral sounds. Boult is said to have rated this (or was it The Kingdom?) higher than Gerontius - surely not!

[Pabmusic]

...From the programme notes, Mark Elder has thoroughly researched this piece. So it has an additional small choir of 9 men (9 Apostles) as well as the main soloists.

He has found a Sofur player. Probably the most authentic performance since Elgar himself last conducted it.

There's really not really much to research, since it's all given in the conductor's notes at the beginning of the score anyway. As for the Shofar, it's no doubt very 'romantic' to include one, but that would be the very opposite of an Elgarian 'authentic' performance, since Elgar was clear that he wanted a straight trumpet (post-horn), not a ram's horn. He put that clearly in the score. (To be fair, Elder's Shofar is not genuine - from the picture, it's a straight trumpet with a crooked bell; a Shofar is a ram's horn.)

Posts 8, 10 and 42 in this thread give details: http://www.for3.org/forums/showthrea...light=apostles

By all accounts, Mark Elder's performance at Manchester was very special. I hope this compares well.

[mercia]

Boult is said to have rated this (or was it The Kingdom?) higher than Gerontius - surely not!

I googled Boult/Kingdom/Gerontius and found this

Boult was a great admirer of The Kingdom and in a note accompanying the original release of his recording he included the following statement:
“I think there is a great deal in The Kingdom that is more than a match for Gerontius, and I feel that it is a much more balanced work and throughout maintains a stream of glorious music whereas Gerontius has its up and downs. Perhaps I was prejudiced by hearing a great friend of Elgar’s [Frank Schuster] (who was very kind to me in my young days) jump down the throat of a young man who made this criticism [that Gerontius was a finer achievement than Kingdom]: ‘My dear boy, beside The Kingdom, Gerontius is the work of a raw amateur’.”

[VodkaDilc]

I googled Boult/Kingdom/Gerontius and found this

Boult was a great admirer of The Kingdom and in a note accompanying the original release of his recording he included the following statement:
“I think there is a great deal in The Kingdom that is more than a match for Gerontius, and I feel that it is a much more balanced work and throughout maintains a stream of glorious music whereas Gerontius has its up and downs. Perhaps I was prejudiced by hearing a great friend of Elgar’s [Frank Schuster] (who was very kind to me in my young days) jump down the throat of a young man who made this criticism [that Gerontius was a finer achievement than Kingdom]: ‘My dear boy, beside The Kingdom, Gerontius is the work of a raw amateur’.”

Who am I to disagree with Boult, but, as I see it, both The Apostles and The Kingdom have 'ups and downs'! But if there are any 'downs' in Gerontius, I have never noticed them.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Who am I to disagree with Boult, but, as I see it, both The Apostles and The Kingdom have 'ups and downs'! But if there are any 'downs' in Gerontius, I have never noticed them.

[VodkaDilc]

There's really not really much to research, since it's all given in the conductor's notes at the beginning of the score anyway. As for the Shofar, it's no doubt very 'romantic' to include one, but that would be the very opposite of an Elgarian 'authentic' performance, since Elgar was clear that he wanted a straight trumpet (post-horn), not a ram's horn. He put that clearly in the score. (To be fair, Elder's Shofar is not genuine - from the picture, it's a straight trumpet with a crooked bell; a Shofar is a ram's horn.)

I was surprised to see the player appear to the side of the organ and begin to play what looked like a VERY long straight trumpet - yet there's all this talk of it being authentic. Has someone one done 'research' that Pabmusic and I do not know about?

This is a very hazy memory, but there were excerpts from The Apostles in a recent Elgar TV documentary. I believe we saw parts of a performance conducted by Ed Gardner (I think) in which Crispian Steele-Perkins (I think) played a more traditional-looking shofar. It also made a more impressive sound than last night's offering.