Wed, 13 Nov 2019

This performance of "The Dream of Gerontius" took place exactly a month after Cardinal John Henry Newman, the author of the poem set to music by Elgar, was canonised by Pope Francis. It is fitting that Elgar's most famous and beloved choral work was performed in Westminster Cathedral after Newman became the first English saint since the Reformation. It was also where Elgar himself conducted the first London performance. 
The Parliament Choir, was joined by Coventry Cathedral Chorus, Mosaic Chamber Choir, members of St Albans Bach Choir, and Southbank Sinfonia, conducted by Simon Over, the Parliament Choir's Founder-Conductor and Southbank Sinfonia's Music Director.  Soloists: Robert Murray (tenor), Catherine Wyn Rogers (mezzo soprano) and Sir Thomas Allen  (baritone). Sir Thomas Allen, a patron of the Parliament Choir, recently retired from the Royal Opera House after forty years. This was his final perfomance with the Parliament Choir.