Elgar and Religion
Tuesday 5 June 2007 23:00-23:15 (Radio 3)
In the week marking Elgar's 150th anniversary, four commentators reflect on aspects of Elgar in the context of his time and after, exploring the contradictions and enigmas in his complex and paradoxical personality.
Playlist:
2/4. Elgar and Religion
Elgar's masterpiece The Dream of Gerontius was given a notoriously inadequate first performance, which may have undermined his Catholic faith. After Gerontius, he began work on a trilogy of oratorios based on the life of Christ and his Apostles, but completed only two of them, The Apostles and The Kingdom. Pianist and conductor Stephen Hough, himself a Catholic, wonders how deeply rooted Elgar's faith actually was.
