British music critics become positively lachrymose when reminiscing about their favorite recordings of this piece, but for many people its appeal really is a purely local phenomenon. The story is simple: Gerontius dies and goes before God to be judged, at which point he gets sent to work off his time in purgatory. This takes about an hour and a half, and the text is stiff and stilted beyond belief. Nonetheless, the piece contains some of the most magnificent music that Elgar ever wrote, and unlike so much religious music of his peers, his emotional expression is completely uninhibited. The same thing can be said of Richard Hickox"s conducting. If you can get past the words, you"ll find this blazing performance a deeply satisfying expression of Elgar"s most personal musical thoughts. --David Hurwitz