The latest instalment of Daniel Barenboim’s Berlin Elgar series for Decca conveniently coincides with his latest visit to the proms with the Staatskapelle, when the two Elgar symphonies provided the cornerstone of the programmes. While those scores, together with many of the other orchestral pieces, are works Barenboim has recorded before, The Dream of Gerontius is new territory. He conducted it for the first time in 2012, also in Berlin, but with the Berlin Philharmonic; these discs derive from performances there with the Staatskapelle last September.
The concerts, and recording based on them, didn’t turn out as planned. The soloists were to have been Jonas Kaufmann, Sarah Connolly and Thomas Hampson, but by the time of the performances Kaufmann and Connolly had withdrawn and been replaced by Andrew Staples and Catherine Wyn-Rogers. Both subsititutes do a very decent job – Wyn-Rogers has sung the Angel on disc before, with Andrew Davis and the BBC Symphony Orchestra – but they are very much in the British choral society tradition. Staples gives a contained, even-paced performance when the role of Gerontius gains so much from having an operatic dimension, which was what made the prospect of Kaufmann singing it so intriguing.
The drama comes from Hampson’s contributions as the Priest and the Angel of the Agony, which do have a real sense of theatricality, even if his tone is not as dark as it might be. Thrilling singing from the combined forces of the Berlin Radio Chamber Choir and Berlin Staatsoper chorus shows the benefit of having a professional chorus in this taxing work, while the rich, nutty sound of the Staatskapelle strings and sheer majesty of its brass are as revelatory here as they have been in Elgar’s orchestral music.
Barenboim’s reading, though, isn’t totally convincing. There’s something rather detached about how he lets the second part unfold. There’s a lack of warmth, despite Wyn-Rogers’ careful singing, and the dramatic climaxes – the Demons’ Chorus, Praise to the Holiest, the moment of judgment – are not stage-managed as convincingly as they are by many other conductors on disc, from John Barbirolli onwards. Compared with his earlier Staatskapelle Elgar, it is a performance that still seems provisional, for all its virtues.
