Monday 5 May 2014 at 7:30pm
Sherborne Abbey

Sherborne Festival Chorus
with Chameleon Arts Orchestra

• Naomi Harvey The Angel Gabriel/Blessed Virgin Mary
• Janet Shell Mary Magdalene
• Joseph Cornwell Narrator/St John
• Peter Savidge Jesus
• Craig Bissex Peter
• Jeremy Birchall Judas
• Conductor Paul Ellis

We’re delighted to be part of Sherborne Festival Chorus again for its annual concert in the Sherborne Abbey Festival. This year’s concert offers a rare chance to hear Elgar’s Oratorio, The Apostles, regarded by some as the pinnacle of his achievements, and performed for the first time in the Abbey. Fascinated since childhood by the Apostles, Elgar toyed with the idea for a work based on their lives for several years; it eventually reached fruition in 1903, three years after Gerontius and a visit to Bayreuth to hear Wagner’s Ring Cycle. Involving one of the largest orchestras for which Elgar ever wrote, The Apostles is magnificent in scale and intensity, from the famous opening, The Spirit of the Lord, the dramatic portrayal of Judas, Christ’s anguished cry from the cross, to the moving finale covering the Resurrection and Ascension.