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Martyn Brabbins conducts Elgar's Dream of Gerontius

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Portrait of Martyn Brabbins (credit: Ben Ealovega)

Edward Elgar felt his dramatic depiction of a man on his deathbed followed by the soul in the afterlife was his greatest music up to that point. It was controversial for being explicitly Catholic in England which still looked with suspicion on the religion in 1900. A new recording features the Huddersfield Choral Society which first recorded the complete piece in 1945 and whose story has parallels with the recent film "The Choral," in which a fictional amateur choir produces Elgar's masterpiece during WWI. KBACH's Michael Keelan talked with the conductor of the album, Martyn Brabbins. Details about the film similarities are found in the program notes online of the recording below.

Details

The Choral