Music Feature

Elgar's Dream

Tuesday 22 May 2007 13:30-14:00 (Radio 4 FM)

Repeated: Saturday 26 May 2007 15:30-16:00 (Radio 4 FM)

Matthew King recalls the birth of Edward Elgar's The Dream of Gerontius in 1900.

This monumental work is a setting of John Henry Newman's poem which follows the journey of a soul through death, Purgatory and the Final Judgement. The piece was both textually and musically controversial and Elgar agonised over it. At the time, he discovered a new passion for cycling, which provided not just an escape route from all the pressures but a source of inspiration.

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