Elgar had been thinking for many years about writing a musical work about Jesus's Twelve Apostles. He was already 42 when his orchestral work "Enigma Variations" was first performed in 1899. He was then asked by the Birmingham Triennial Music Festival to compose a big work for the following year. At first he thought of writing "The Apostles", but then he realized he would need more than a year to write it, so he composed an oratorio called "The Dream of Gerontius". When it was first performed it was not a success. This was because the orchestra and choir had only had two weeks to learn it and also because the conductor did not like Elgar's music anyway. Then it was performed in Düsseldorf in Germany and shortly afterwards in Westminster Cathedral, London. Both these performances were greeted with lots of applause. Elgar was given a doctorate (title of Dr) by the University of Cambridge and he was becoming famous. He started to work on "The Apostles", and it was performed in Birmingham in 1903.