Tag Archives: David Ireland

In concert – Three Choirs Festival: Adrian Partington conducts Elgar’s ‘Dream of Gerontius’

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John Findon (tenor), Niamh O’Sullivan (mezzo-soprano), David Ireland (bass-baritone), Three Choirs Festival Chorus, Philharmonia Orchestra / Adrian Partington

Wagner Parsifal – Prelude to Act One (1878)
Elgar The Dream of Gerontius, Op. 38 (1899-1900)

Gloucester Cathedral
Saturday 1 August 2026

Reviewed by Richard Whitehouse Photo credits (c) James O’Driscoll

Closing this latest edition of the Three Choirs Festival with Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius felt both inevitable and fitting, given its seminal place in the annals of the English choral tradition as of this festival, in what proved if not an unblemished then certainly a memorable realization.

Hearing this work now is to feel surprise how, aside from aspects of Cardinal Newman’s text, its musical treatment could have seemed so problematic whether technically or interpretively. Maybe the musical lineage on which it drew being not yet fully assimilated by musicians and listeners, or its contrasts between life and after-death being so emotionally charged, presented challenges to be overcome only with time and perseverance. If such were the case, then those challenges have certainly been met in the 124 years since its first hearing at the Three Choirs.

Allotting the vocalists so they merge into a balanced and complementary whole is a task this evening’s performance met convincingly. John Findon (above) brought fervour and an immediacy to Gerontius which never threatened overkill. Witness the assured pacing of his ‘Sanctus fortis’ solo so it dominated the opening part without undermining the latter’s formal and expressive trajectory; or the respective poise and fervour of ‘I went to sleep’ and ‘Take me away’, at the start then climax of the second part, in furthering overall dramatic flow.

A little too detached initially, Niamh O’Sullivan (above, with Findon) duly entered into the persona of the Angel such that ‘Softly and gently’ exuded an affecting poise. Starkly implacable as the Priest, David Ireland (below) brought to Angel of the Agony an understatement preferable to that wanton rhetoric often encountered.

Few such works have so extensive and varied a choral component as Gerontius, in which the Three Choirs Festival Chorus did not disappoint. Thus the distant response of the Assistants, menacing aggression of the Demons, accumulating power of the Angelicals in their majestic ‘Praise to the Holiest’ or ethereal chant of the Souls in Purgatory were all characterized with the requisite insight. Nor was the Philharmonia found wanting in Elgar’s always resourceful though often demanding orchestral writing, notably a Prelude such as unfolded purposefully towards its eloquent culmination. Here, as throughout, Adrian Partington (below) gave notice of his deep knowledge of and unfailing involvement with this score – not least when bringing out those sombre if luminous hues as were a hallmark of the composer’s orchestration forthwith.

Orchestral and conductor were also at one when delineating the hieratic mystery or grandeur of the Prelude to Wagner’s Parsifal. Its inclusion prior to Gerontius has often found favour in recent years yet, other than pointing up that debt which Elgar repaid handsomely in his own terms, it hardly seems necessary given the emotional scope or inclusiveness of what follows. If it is included then better, surely, to play this piece without its Act One ‘resolution’ then go straight into the Elgar to point up their conceptual connection and ensure cohesion forthwith.

Attendees at the performance had the benefit of programme notes by Martin Lee-Browne – author, authority on British music (not least Delius) and one-time Chairman of Gloucester Three Choirs – whose presence at and contributions to this festival will be greatly missed.

To read more about the 2027 festival in Worcester, head to the Three Choirs Festival website. Click on the names for more on the artists in this concert – tenor John Findon, mezzo-soprano Niamh O’Sullivan, bass-baritone David Ireland, the Philharmonia Orchestra and conductor Adrian Partington

Published post no.2,954 – Monday 6 July 2026

Arcana at the Proms – Prom 35: Martyn Brabbins – Enigma Variations

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Idunnu Münch (mezzo-soprano), William Morgan (tenor), Nadine Benjamin (soprano), David Ireland (bass-baritone), English National Opera Chorus, BBC Singers, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra / Martyn Brabbins (above)

Various composers Pictured Within: Birthday Variations for M. C. B. (2019, BBC commission: world premiere)
Vaughan Williams Serenade to Music (1938)
Brahms Schicksalslied (Song of Destiny) Op.54 (1871)
Elgar Enigma Variations Op.36 (1899)

Royal Albert Hall, Tuesday 13 August 2019

Reviewed by Richard Whitehouse
Photo credits Chris Christodoulou

You can listen to this Prom on BBC Sounds here

It was clearly a great idea that the BBC commission a piece to mark Martyn Brabbins’s 60th birthday, this concert also being his 36th appearance at these concerts, as well as featuring 14 composers with whom this most stylistically wide-ranging of conductors has been associated.

The result was Pictured Within: Birthday Variations for M.C.B, each composer contributing a variation on an anonymous theme in what is an inverse take on Elgar’s procedure in his own Variations on an Original Theme – whose ground-plan also furnished the formal framework. Space precludes more detailed discussion, though it is worth noting the degree to which these composers (the full list is here) were inhibited or liberated by their placing in the overall scheme. And as this theme yielded its potential more from a harmonic then melodic or rhythmic angle, the most successful made a virtue of such constraints – not least Judith Weir in her engaging 10th variation and John Pickard in a finale, The Art of Beginning, whose deft mingling of portentousness with humour might yet become the springboard for an entirely new venture.

Vaughan Williams’s Serenade to Music (premiered in this venue – but not at these concerts – 81 years ago) was conceived for 16 solo singers and the choral alternative inevitably loses some of the original’s intimacy, though not the distinctiveness in its setting of lines drawn from Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice. Joining the BBC Singers and members of the ENO Chorus were participants on the Harwood Young Artists programme, of whom Nadine Benjamin brought a wide-eyed wonder to the soprano solos which motivate the latter stages.

Less often heard in the UK, Brahms’s Song of Destiny is among his most ruminative choral works. Its setting of the eponymous poem by Friedrich Hölderlin might be seen as continuing from A German Requiem in its subdued fatalism, albeit with a more animated central section as hints at that starker resignation which overcame the composer in his later years. Brabbins presided over an unforced yet insightful account of a piece that, for its relative unfamiliarity, has garnered numerous distinguished admirers – among them the composer William Walton.

Closing this concert with Elgar’s Enigma Variations made for an effective symmetry as well as bringing the programme full circle. Brabbins is no stranger to the work and duly galvanized the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra in a performance which gave full rein to these widely contrasted portraits (never caricatures!) of the composer’s friends while also ensuring an overall unity to the greater design – with the only lengthy pause coming after a luminous account of the ninth Nimrod variation – that carried through to a finale whose elation was shorn of any bombast. There were various delights on the way, not least a winsome take on the fifth variation, with the numerous instrumental solos eloquently taken. Hard to believe Elgar extended that final variation only at the urging of others, so inevitably does this build to its resplendent ending.

Some might have wondered whether building a full Prom around the birthday of its conductor was excessive but, given the regard in which Brabbins is held and the conviction he invested into each of these pieces, that decision was manifestly justified. Many Happy Returns M.C.B!

Martyn Brabbins has recorded Elgar’s Enigma Variations with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra for Hyperion. More details can be found on their website, or on the YouTube clip below: