BR photo from rehearsals for last night’s and tonight’s performances

Friday, June 19, 2026

Herkulessaal, Munich

What if… Dvořák had realised his interest in setting Cardinal Newman’s flowery, incense-infused text, would Elgar still have perfected his own oratorical version? Not that he termed The Dream of Gerontius anything beyond its title, but I hope he would have done, for although Newman’s prose divides opinion, it is secondary to Elgar’s thrilling and sublime music, which Simon Rattle recorded in his CBSO days (as did his successor Sakari Oramo) for EMI, with John Mitchinson as Gerontius, Janet Baker (previously for Barbirolli) and Robert Lloyd (previously for Boult). Sir Simon was both generously expansive and fluid in the Prelude, pointing the way to later prayerful requests and dramas. Enter Nicky Spence, a plaintive Gerontius if heroic with those demanding and fortissimo top notes, the BR Chorus as idiomatically English as the words themselves, Rattle uninhibited with heart-on-sleeve moments. Lester Lynch was a stentorian Priest, an Old Testament evangelist ignored at our peril.

There was no interval. Maybe Rattle moved into the Afterlife just a little too soon, although an ethereal atmosphere was immediately established, Gerontius now guided by an Angel (Alice Coote a little matronly vocally if totally musically sympathetic to the role). As Gerontius gets nearer to God, Rattle unleashed urgent Demons (Chorus & Orchestra in virtuoso form) and built towards ‘Praise to the Holiest’ unerringly, delivered majestically. On his return, now as the Angel of the Agony, Lynch made little differentiation to the Priest, albeit with greater compassion. As Gerontius gets nearer to his Judge (blinding orchestral light), Coote took the high-note option, if with some trepidation. The ‘farewells’ were poignant, and the whole was summed by a fastidiously balanced and faded final choral/orchestral chord. This Sunday these performers take Gerontius to the Ottobeuren Basilika.

Thanks to these regular BR broadcasts, Friday Night is indeed Music Night. Scheduled for next week, Zubin Mehta takes charge of the wonderful BRSO for Wagner, Beethoven and Tchaikovsky.

Alice Coote mezzo-soprano

Nicky Spence tenor

Lester Lynch baritone

Bavarian Radio Chorus

Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks/Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra – Matthias Pintscher conducts premieres by Lisa Streich (BLACK SWAN/Tamara Stefanovich) and Jüri Reinvere (Das Lied von den zwei Erden/Aušrinė Stundytė & Kristi Mühling) with Hans Werner Henze’s Heliogabalus Imperator. Live on BR-Klassik.

Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks/Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra – Sir Simon Rattle & Magdalena Kožená – Haydn 86, Ondřej Adámek’s Where Are You?, Brahms 4. Live on BR-Klassik.

Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks/Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra – Simon Rattle conducts Roberto Gerhard’s Dances from Don Quixote, Francis Poulenc’s Les Biches (Suite), Debussy’s La mer, and Kirill Gerstein plays Francisco Coll’s Piano Concerto. Live on BR-Klassik.

Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks/Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra – Iván Fischer conducts Bartók, with Vilde Frang playing Violin Concerto No.2, and Mendelssohn’s ‘Scottish’ Symphony. Live on BR-Klassik.