Elgar - The Dream of Gerontius

The Guardian 80

Staples/Wyn-Rogers/Hampson/Staatskapelle Berlin/Barenboim
(Decca, two CDs)

The latest instalment of Daniel Barenboim’s Berlin Elgar series for Decca conveniently coincides with his latest visit to the proms with the Staatskapelle, when the two Elgar symphonies provided the cornerstone of the programmes. While those scores, together with many of the other orchestral pieces, are works Barenboim has recorded before, The Dream of Gerontius is new territory. He conducted it for the first time in 2012, also in Berlin, but with the Berlin Philharmonic; these discs derive from performances there with the Staatskapelle last September.

There’s a lack of warmth, despite Wyn-Rogers’ careful singing