Elgar's First Oratorio This year marks 150 years since Sir Edward Elgar was born on 2nd June at Broadheath, near Worcester. St Mark's choir, with soloists from London and Oxford, are joining in the celebrations around the country with a performance of his first oratorio, written in 1896. Entry is free with a retiring collection, proceeds going to STAN, Swindon's Talking Newspaper. Please scroll down for more information. Click here to view poster. Click here to view high quality PDF poster.

Review

The following review appeared in the Swindon Advertiser on Wednesday 24th October, following our performance of Sir Edward Elgar's first oratorio, The Light of Life (see here ). Sir Edward Elgar's 150th birthday was celebrated by the Choir of St Mark's Church through a performance of his little known first oratorio, The Light of Life. It was fitting that donations following the performance were in aid of STAN, Swindon Talking News, because the music was based on the Bible story telling how Jesus made the blind man see. Dan Chambers, Conductor, and Sam Bayliss, Organist, are both former Organ Scholars from Oxford University and their musicality and performance skills shone through, during this absorbing afternoon. The choir captured the contrasting moods of the Pharisees and Jesus's supporters and Julian Forbes, Tenor, gave a moving performance as the Blind Man. Other soloists were Danae Pallikaropoulos, Ellie Calver and Christian Bradley and each sang well, interpreting their characters sensitively. There are several choirs of high quality in Swindon and the Choir of St Mark's Church, under the direction of Dan Chambers, is certainly one of them. Mirian Sirrelle

About the Work Elgar intended to call this oratorio Lux Christi, but his publishers, Novello, persuaded him to give it an English title instead. The Light of Life retells the story of the blind beggar whose sight Christ restored. The libretto comes from the Gospel according to St John, with some additional words by the Reverend Capel-Cure. The work was the longest single piece that Elgar had composed by 1896 and as such represents an important cornerstone in his musical development. Whilst it is his first foray into the genre of the religious oratorio, it nevertheless sets the stage for the other two New Testament oratorios which were to follow, The Apostles and The Kingdom. Particularly important is consistent use of leitmotifs representing characters (especially Jesus) accross the three oratorios, which had not appeared in any choral work prior to The Light of Life. The Jesus motif first appears in the opening orchestral prelude, and is occurs repeatedly throughout the work before finally appearing once again at the first climax of the Prologue to The Apostles (perhaps better known as the anthem The Spirit of the Lord) to the words "and recovering of sight to the blind".

About the Soloists
The Blind Man's Mother (Soprano): Danae Pallikaropoulos Narrator (Contralto): Ellie Calver The Blind Man (Tenor): Julian Forbes Jesus (Baritone): Christian Bradley