Andrew Clements 

The Apostles review – ‘Intelligently articulated’

Elgar's treatment of the passion story shone most when it focused on Judas – and this was where Andrew Davis's performance came alive, writes Andrew Clements
  
  

Andrew Davis
Master of authenticity … Andrew Davis. Photograph: Chris Christodoulou Photograph: Chris Christodoulou

Six days after their performance of The Dream of Gerontius, Andrew Davis and the BBC Symphony Orchestra and its Chorus were back at the Barbican with another of Elgar's great choral works. The Apostles was intended as the start of a biblical trilogy that was never completed (Elgar composed its successor, The Kingdom, but got no farther than planning the third part, The Last Judgement) and hearing it so soon after Gerontius emphasised how utterly different the two works are.

One of Elgar's great triumphs in Gerontius is his reinvention of so many of the conventions of the English oratorio on his own terms. But there are passages in the The Apostles, especially in the first half, where that Victorian background is just a little too obvious; the fustian text hardly helps either. It's only in the second part that Elgar's treatment of the passion story really snaps into focus, and what was important to him about the story becomes clear in the weight he gives to different aspects of it. Part two contains the most striking music, too, and that was also where Davis's performance, always intelligently shaped and articulated, really came alive dramatically.

Judas was clearly the character that most fascinated Elgar, and it's largely through his increasing importance as the work goes on that it acquires the coherence and momentum that are noticeably lacking in the early sections, and which provides its fierce climax with his death. It's also the most rewarding role to sing, and Brindley Sherratt, direct and communicative, certainly made the most of the opportunities that provided.

But the BBC had put together an impressive cast for the performance altogether, and Gerald Finley and Paul Groves completed the set of solo apostles, with Jacques Imbrailo as a suave-toned Jesus. Sarah Connolly was Mary Magdalene, the other really rounded protagonist, though Nicole Cabelle was a bit of an odd choice as the Angel Gabriel, and seemed rather out of place in such a work. But Davis ensured that everything else about the performance was as authentic as it could be.

• To be broadcast on Radio 3 on 24 April.

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