The Limelight Recording of the Month for December is a live performance of The Dream of Gerontius captured at the 2022 BBC Proms. Performed by the London Philharmonic Orchestra under Principal Conductor Edward Gardner, its starry lineup includes British tenor Allan Clayton and American mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton.

Clive Paget caught up with the internationally in-demand conductor to find out about his lifelong journey with Elgar’s oratorio, why this intensely Catholic work resonates so strongly with so many people today, and how best to negotiate it’s complex demands.

What’s your personal relationship with The Dream of Gerontius?

It’s one of the closest pieces in the canon for me, because I sang it at Gloucester Cathedral as a boy. I played organ in it when I was at school, I chorus-mastered it, and then I conducted it. The first one would’ve been when I left Cambridge, in 1998, and I’ve been doing it pretty regularly since, both in the UK and also internationally.

Edward Gardner

Edward Gardner. Photo © BBC Proms/Chris Christodoulou

The really nice thing is that it goes back to my cathedral organist, who was a wonderful man called John Sanders, the...