Bryn Terfel as Boris Godunov [Clive Barda]

ELGAR’S oratorios have a weight and grandeur that inspired Edwardian audiences with spiritual zeal in ways they maybe don’t today. But they still pack a punch. And when Crouch End Festival Chorus issued a recording of The Kingdom last year on the Signum label, it was enthusiastically received – which can only commend CEFC’s live performance of the piece at the Royal Festival Hall, Jan 29.

Joined onstage by the Hertfordshire Chorus and much the same soloists as on disc, including Sarah Connolly, it promises to be the highlight of CEFC’s year. And David Temple, who conducts, will tell you that The Kingdom is in fact Elgar’s masterpiece – which I’m not sure about but am open to persuasion.

Reflecting the composer’s Roman Catholic background (though with a less feverish kind of Catholicism than his Dream of Gerontius), The Kingdom follows a biblical narrative about the disciples in the aftermath of Pentecost, laying the foundations for what will be the Christian Church. Broadly contemplative, it sprawls across an almost two-hour running time. But stay the course and you’ll find music of real stature in this score that even keen Elgarians tend not to know so well. southbankcentre.co.uk

• Several other epics feature in the concert schedules this week, starting with unEarth, a contemporary oratorio about clime change by a veteran of the American avant-garde scene in New York, Julia Wolfe. With video projection and spatial effects, it gets its UK premiere at the Barbican, Jan 23, from the BBCSO and National Youth Choir. barbican.org.uk

Then there’s Mahler’s 10th Symphony – the one he didn’t finish – played by the London Philharmonic Orchestra at the Royal Festival Hall, Jan 24: not in the familiar realisation by Deryck Cook but one by Rudolph Barshai that’s apparently favoured by the evening’s conductor Vladimir Jurowski. southbankcentre.co.uk

Another mighty (if consoling and peaceable) score is Brahms’ German Requiem, which surfaces at the Barbican, Jan 25, courtesy of the LSO under Manfred Honeck. Also on the bill is Mozart’s last piano concerto, K595, with Imogen Cooper as soloist. barbican.org.uk

And a final juggernaut, Musorgsky’s Boris Godunov, revives at the Royal Opera House, in Richard Jones’s 2016 staging – which in fact trims the piece down by using the composer’s original, shorter version. Bryn Terfel stars as the guilt-haunted Russian Tsar who (according to the opera but perhaps not history) has risen to power by murdering the rightful heir. Mark Wigglesworth conducts. Runs Jan 29-Feb 18. rbo.org.uk

• Big-name artists in London this week include old-school superstar violinist Maxim Vengerov in recital at the Barbican, Jan 28: barbican.org.uk – And Wigmore Hall has pianist Angela Hewitt on baroque home territory – Bach, Scarlatti, Rameau – Jan 23; cerebral harpsichordist Mahan Esfahani playing more Scarlatti, Jan 24; and the choice pairing of cellist Alisa Weilerstein with pianist Pavel Kolesnikov in sonatas by Brahms & Prokofiev, Jan 26. wigmore-hall.org.uk

• Meanwhile, organ lovers will savour the spotlight on the Festival Hall’s four-manual monster when it’s played by Daniel Hyde, Jan 27. southbankcentre.co.uk

• And for off-piste opera, the Hastings-based Ensemble Orquesta are at the Cockpit Theatre with a small-scale production of Mozart’s equivocal comedy Cosi fan tutte, Jan 22-25. ensembleorquesta.com