Elgar: The Dream of Gerontius & Symphony No. 1 (2 SACD)

When Edward Elgar was commissioned in 1898 to compose a new work for the Birmingham Triennial in 1900, he decided to set the 900-line poem "The Dream of Gerontius", written by Cardinal John Henry Newman, as an oratorio. However, the content of the poem, namely the hour of a man's death and how his guardian angel leads him to God, called for a completely new realization. Elgar turned the poem into a kind of through-composed Wagnerian music drama with leitmotifs. Although the premiere was a failure, "The Dream of Gerontius" has established itself as a standard work, especially in Great Britain, and is today one of Edward Elgar's most important compositions. This is currently the only recording on SACD. This double CD is completed by the Symphony No. 1 in A flat major.