I’d totally forgotten about the organ. I was commenting on Friday that the sound of the big bass drum from the BBC Philharmonic in Berlioz Symphonie Fantastique would keep me going, volume wise, over the summer. But last night, it was decisively trumped by the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, three choirs -- the Ceramic City, Keele Bach and Keele Philharmonic -- and, of course, that wonderful Victoria Hall organ. They produced a wall of sound Phil Spector would have been proud of. It stirred the soul -- which was a good thing, since the stirring of the soul is what Elgar’s Dream of Gerontius is all about. The performance was the Ceramic City Choir’s tribute to Elgar in the 150th anniversary of his birth. I see the work came third in the BBC’s recent survey of his ten best works. Elgar himself certainly rated it, putting John Ruskin’s poem at the end; “This is the best of me.” Spiritual experience That, however, was before he wrote the symphonies, the violin concerto or the cello concerto. Myself, I was inoculated against organised religion by a sorry childhood as a choirboy. But there is no doubting the spiritual experience that the Dream produces, and conductor Matthew Willis brought that glow to the work. The first performance in Birmingham wasn’t rehearsed properly, and was a total disaster. There was no danger of that happening here. Matthew Willis not only kept the performance firmly on the rails (so easy for a work with so many performers to just stagnate), but he solved difficult balance problems as he went along. The Ceramic City Choir could be proud of themselves; this is much more demanding than the average amateur choir work. And the soloists were first class; a performance of Wagnerian proportions from Anne-Marie Owens, a truly passionate one from James Gilchrist, and forthright power from Christopher Purves. Elgar’s King Olaf was written for the Ceramic City Choir, first performed in the Victoria Hall, and recreated in 1996 for a BBC Radio 3 performance. It would be nice if that got a repeat sometime during this anniversary year. How about it, Radio 3? Chris Ramsden | 
