Blessed Virgin/Angel  Felicity Lott
Mary Magdalene        Catherine Wyn-Rogers
John                  Thomas Randle
Jesus                 Anthony Michaels-Moore
Peter                 Stephen Page
Judas                 John Tomlinson

Conductor             Andrew Davis

BBC Symphony Orchestra, BBC Symphony Chorus

Elgar's The apostles was conceived as the first part of a trilogy based on
the New Testament. The kingdom, based on Acts, follows it, and he planned a
finale based on The apocalypse which he never wrote. (Song cycle based on
the Pauline epistles, anyone?)

The apostles is based on the point of view of the ordinary people, the
apostles and Mary Magdalene, in the gospel narratives. But it isn't a
radical work like Pasaolini's Gospel according to St Matthew. Rather, it's
essentially an Anglican celebration of quietism and trust in divine mercy,
selecting texts and episodes that emphasise its characters' simple faith,
confirmed by Jesus' soothing words. What makes it interesting is the
prominence of Judas, who has the only dramatic scene in which he torments
himself with Jeremiah-based pessimism after he realised what he has done in
betraying Jesus. But this is a smallish central panel in a triptych framed
by the sermon on the mount and a very oblique account of the passion and
crucifixion followed by a Faust-like concluding chorus.

The music is what you'd expect of Elgar in 1904. There are sections evoking
the renaissance polyphony of the Anglican liturgy, but the main style is
Elgar's characteristic elegaic romanticism, with some complex orchestral
effects. The narrative technique is odd and unsatisfactory: there is a
tenor narrator in the first part, though the characters also narrate the
episode of Peter walking on the water, while the narrative divided between
the contralto and the chorus in the second part. The chorus are the
apostles, the rabble, the priests, a choir who sing psalms in the temple as
a background to Judas' scena, and a heavenly choir in the finale. Only
Jesus has a consistent role, singing words from scripture.

This performance probably delivered the work as well as it could be done.
Felicity Lott isn't the obvious choice for the BVM, even in an aqua blue
draped gown with something that looked like a rosary down the front and
round her neck. I only saw her wink at Andew Davies once, and she sang the
music straight. Similarly, wholesome Catherine Wyn-Rogers (dark scarlet
printed velvet coat over black dress) is an unlikely Magdalene. But Mary
Magdalene's music, a scena of repentenance in a tower by the sea of
Galilee, is similar to the Sea pictures and Wyn-Rogers' English contralto
was about right.

Anthony Michaels-Moore was authoritative as Jesus. Thomas Randle has an
exciting voice and charismatic presence. (I was hoping he'd show up in his
leather tuxedo.) He made a lot of the formulaic part of John, while Steven
Page was more workmanlike as Peter. John Tomlinson as Judas should probably
have been positioned at the exit of South Kensington station for balance,
but it was good to see him in action, as always.

The choir and especially orchestra delivered the details of the score for
Andew Davis.

But everyone except John Tomlinson seemed weary by the end, as though
they'd been trying to squeeze meaning out of nothing much. The apostles is
what it is, and I'd take it in preference to the Bach pastiche that misses
the point in Mendelsohn's Elijah. But I'd rather have a Bach passion that
gets to the real agony and triumph of the gospels in a way that you can
feel even if you don't believe.