If you’re within driving distance of Princeton and aren’t holding tickets to tonight’s performance of George Antheil’s “Ballet Mécanique” in Trenton (by the New Jersey Capital Philharmonic Orchestra), you owe it to yourself to do everything in your power to try to catch the second performance of Edward Elgar’s “The Dream of Gerontius” by the Princeton University Orchestra and Princeton University Glee Club.
I happen to be extremely fond of Elgar, and this is always deemed to be one of his best pieces (with the “Enigma Variations,” it’s the work that really solidified his reputation as the foremost English composer of his generation); but if I’m to be honest, I’ve always found it to be kind of meh. Beyond the Demons Chorus, there really isn’t any of that Elgarian swagger (it’s the flip side of “Enigma”), and the whole bears a heavy Wagnerian stamp. But last night it was so beautiful, and came across so much better than on recordings. It’s one of those pieces that simply has to be experienced live. Do it!
The soloists were all wonderful, with tenor Anthony Dean Griffey, the Met’s “Peter Grimes,” as Gerontius, countertenor Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen, a Princeton alumnus, as the Angel (unusually, as the part is usually taken by a mezzo-soprano), and bass-baritone Andrew Foster Williams, singing from balcony and platform (extending stage left to accommodate organist Eric Plutz and double basses), as the Priest and Angel of Agony.
I have no idea how Michael Pratt maintains the quality of his orchestra. First of all, the musicians are mostly dilettantes, pursuing degrees in other fields, like astrophysics, bioengineering, computer science, linguistics, sociology, philosophy, and anything else in no way related to music. Second, a substantial portion of the personnel must turn over every year as students graduate. I’ve heard the orchestra a number of times before (Mahler 3, “Ein Heldenleben,” “Daphnis and Chloe”), and they’ve always been very good, if perhaps interpretatively safe, but last night they excelled. I can’t believe anyone could have done it any better.
Princeton University Glee Club, supplying the three choirs, was transcendent. They sang with spirit and celestial joy. Their director, Gabriel Crouch, formerly a member of the King’s Singers and founder of Gallicantus, stepped up his game to conduct the massed forces of orchestra and singers. A very, very fine job he did. The concert was shamefully under-attended, with many empty seats, but those in the audience cheered like a full house.
Take it from someone who owns at least four recordings of the piece (conducted by Boult, Britten, Hickox, and Sargent): those recordings may offer some superior musicianship and insights, but none of them outstrip the “Gerontius” I experienced last night. The young musicians were strikingly committed – I caught a few of them even smiling – in this astonishingly somber, bold piece of programming for such an overly sensitive, culturally retrogressive age.
“Gerontius” is standard repertoire in the U.K. but not bound to pack houses in the U.S. Its somber nature encourages introspection and contemplation. The subject matter is no less than a speculative journey into the afterlife.
That this solemn, 90-minute work by a dead white male who was always photographed in heavy tweeds and a stuffy push-broom mustache, and who has become further weighted with the post-colonial baggage of “Empire” (he wrote a lot of ceremonial music and those “Pomp and Circumstance” marches), that this musical monument steeped in profound religious feeling, would so engage these young performers of varied backgrounds and ethnicities is a powerful rebuttal to the reductive 21st century impulse to damn anything that doesn’t perfectly blend with our own thoughts, experiences, or systems of belief. Watching those who poured their souls into it last night, and realizing they will have a role in shaping the future, gave me a rare glimmer of hope.
“The Dream of Gerontius” is a human masterpiece. Open your heart and see it.
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