On 29 September 1958 John Barbirolli conducted Part 1 of Gerontius with the Dublin Choir in the presence of Pope Pius XII at Castel Gandolfo, only a few days before the Pope's death. 'I have often wondered', he wrote, 'what the feelings of Newman and Elgar would be if they could know that the last music [the Pope] heard had been Elgar's setting of Newman's words "Go forth upon thy journey, Christian soul". As Barbirolli knelt before him, the Pope said: 'Figlio mio, questo e un capolavoro sublime' ('My son, that is a sublime masterpiece'). The header photo shows Sir John Barbirolli recording The Dream of Gerontius in 1964 in the Free Trade Hall , Manchester. No CD collection is complete without Barbirolli's Manchester account or Benjamin Britten's version which was recorded in Snape Maltings , the latter is now, thankfully, back in the catalogue - grab it while you can. Also noteworthy is the recent first-ever CD release ...
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http://home.snafu.de/djwolf/vitae.htm#Bio
I endorse DJW's comment re the Peter Principle. It is, in fact, proven countless times every day, in every field of endeavour there is. The problem is that the PP was so obviously fitting for jokes on talk shows and in comedy acts, that the very true and serious nature of it was never really taken seriously when it was first published and hasn't been since other than by a few.