A century after it sang through war, the Huddersfield Choral Society reunites with Elgar’s masterpiece in a major new recording – echoing the story that inspired Bennett’s new film.

“The parallels between the film and our own history are striking.”
— Sir John Harman

Listen to Elgar: The Dream of Gerontius, Op 38 – 7: Proficiscere, anima ChristianaHERE

A century after it sang through war, the Huddersfield Choral Society reunites with Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius in a major new recording from Hyperion Records, released on 30 January 2026. Timed with the release of Alan Bennett’s new film The Choral, starring Ralph Fiennes, Roger Allam and Simon Russell Beale, the album shines a light on the Huddersfield Choral Society, whose wartime story bears remarkable similarities to the film’s fictional choir.

In 1917, while the First World War raged, the Huddersfield Choral Society performed The Dream of Gerontius under Sir Edward Elgar himself. Twenty-three of its members were serving overseas at the time; two basses, Lewis Walker and Frank Rushfirth, never came home. Yet the choir carried on, raising funds for war relief and earning Elgar’s praise for one of the finest performances of his career.

A century later, that same choir’s voices rise again in a new Hyperion recording conducted by Martyn Brabbins with the Orchestra of Opera North, featuring Karen Cargill, David Butt Philip and Roland Wood. Recorded in Huddersfield Town Hall, the album will be released on Friday 30 January 2026, and the first streaming track launching Friday 14 November 2025.

Alan Bennett’s The Choral, directed by Nicholas Hytner, tells the story of a Yorkshire choir determined to keep music alive while its men are called to the front. The theme closely echoes Huddersfield’s own history. “The parallels between the film and our own history are striking,” says Sir John Harman, General Secretary of the Huddersfield Choral Society. “During the First World War our members continued to sing even as many went off to serve, and we still perform The Dream of Gerontius today with the same conviction. The new Hyperion recording feels like a fitting way to celebrate that continuity across more than a century of voices.”

Founded in 1836, the Huddersfield Choral Society remains one of Britain’s best-loved and most historic choirs. Its connection with Elgar runs deep: it first performed The Dream of Gerontius in 1905 and 1907, again under Elgar in 1917, and made the first complete recording of the work in 1945.

Composed in 1900, The Dream of Gerontius sets Cardinal Newman’s poem about a soul’s journey through death and judgement. For Huddersfield, it has become more than a masterpiece, a living act of remembrance.

More than a hundred years after the choir sang through war, its members still gather under the same roof, in the same town, to give voice to Elgar’s timeless work. It remains a powerful reminder that even in the darkest times, music endures.