Conductor: Paul Ellis
Soprano: Claire Rutter
Mezzo soprano: Frances Bourne
Tenor: Rhys Batt
Bass: Craig Bissex
After the long enforced break from singing, the Festival Chorus is delighted to be returning to the Festival to perform one of Elgar’s finest works, The Kingdom, first planned for performance in 2020. Like Gerontius, The Kingdom was commissioned by the Birmingham Music Festival and first performed there in 1906. With rich and colourful orchestral writing and a dramatic vocal style, almost operatic in places, this magnificent work is Elgar at his most inspired. “Elgar’s greatest choral work” Sir Adrian Boult.
