# Some new adventures with choral music



## Xaltotun (Sep 3, 2010)

I've been listening to a lot of choral music and oratorios lately. Some comments:

HAYDN: "Die Schöpfung" (Karajan/BPo etc). I am in complete awe! This has to be my favourite work by Haydn, although I liked him well enough already. Haydn's approach is almost existentialist here. Why are there things? Why is there music? Why is there beauty? Haydn isn't composing here to please a petty aristochrat; he is composing here to please God, and one can hear it. He's bold, almost crazy, like a true "composer of avant-garde". Kant would approve of it, too, I'm sure!

BACH: "Mass in B minor" (Hannoversche Hofkapelle etc.) Finally, I am starting to "get" Bach; it has surely taken a long time. This work has several different moods that form a grand totality; it is a most solemn, most serious overtaking. It feels somewhat abstract, though. This is the music of the Absolute, the particular Man never seems to enter the picture.

LISZT: "Christus" (Helmuth Rilling etc.) In another thread, I waxed poetically about this one; I'm loving it like a thing man loves. It's profound and immensely satisfying, pulsing with meaning.

MENDELSSOHN: "Symphony #2, 'Lobengesang'" (Karajan/Bpo). I'm not sure whether I like this one that much. It's quite nice at times, but it feels a bit silly and superficial. "Loben den Herr!" Yeah, you got nothing more to say, Felix?

BERLIOZ: "Grande symphonie funèbre et triomphale". The 3rd movement, with a rousing chorus, is extremely effective. This nationalistic-propagandistic pomp really sets my blood on fire and leaves me wanting to spill it for the fatherland of anyone who happened to compose this!

SCHUBERT: "Mass #6". This was nice but I expected better from Schubert.

HANDEL: "Messiah" (John Eliot Gardiner etc). Major disappointment. I wanted this to end all the time, it was almost torturous! I never get this kind of reaction to classical music! Now, who's to blame? There's three possibilities: Mr. Xaltotun, Mr. Handel and/or Mr. Gardiner. All of them might be to blame, but I'm leaning on the latter. This was so flat, mundane and boring that it makes "Für Elise" sound like the 9th symphony. I'll give it another chance, but NOT with Mr. Gardiner.


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

Try this: the Dublin Messiah.


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

Xaltotun said:


> HANDEL: "Messiah" (John Eliot Gardiner etc). Major disappointment. I wanted this to end all the time, it was almost torturous! I never get this kind of reaction to classical music! Now, who's to blame? There's three possibilities: Mr. Xaltotun, Mr. Handel and/or Mr. Gardiner. All of them might be to blame, but I'm leaning on the latter. This was so flat, mundane and boring that it makes "Für Elise" sound like the 9th symphony. I'll give it another chance, but NOT with Mr. Gardiner.


It is also quite possible that you simply do not like the piece, without any blame to be attached. I don't like it at all. None of us is obliged to like all alleged masterpieces.


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## Xaltotun (Sep 3, 2010)

Art Rock said:


> It is also quite possible that you simply do not like the piece, without any blame to be attached. I don't like it at all. None of us is obliged to like all alleged masterpieces.


Thanks! This made me feel better about it.


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## Xaltotun (Sep 3, 2010)

I've recently listened to even more choral and also solo vocal music. Two revelations: I'm totally sold to Bach, all because of a gentleman called Mr. Klemperer. And: I'm totally sold to lieder (never thought I'd see this day!), all because of a gentleman called Mr. Fischer-Dieskau.


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## SiegendesLicht (Mar 4, 2012)

Just curious: what are some of your favorites of the latter genre?


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## Xaltotun (Sep 3, 2010)

SiegendesLicht said:


> Just curious: what are some of your favorites of the latter genre?


My knowledge is very basic at this point as I've only scratched the surface... but the breakthrough came with Schubert's _Die Schöne Müllerin_. What a great example of vital and pure early romanticism! I've also listened to all the other famous song cycles of Schubert and Mahler, but somehow hearing Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau perform the _Müllerin_ touched my heart the most.


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## SiegendesLicht (Mar 4, 2012)

My knowledge is even more basic than yours, but I absolutely love his _Winterreise _.


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## Xaltotun (Sep 3, 2010)

I also like _Winterreise_, and have listened to it recently a couple of times... but it seems that it requires a certain mood from the listener, and I haven't been in that mood recently. Now, with _Die Schöne Müllerin_, that's _exactly_ the mood I've been in.


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## Xaltotun (Sep 3, 2010)

I've made a decision to familiarize myself better with all of Schubert's masses. Yesterday I listened to #2, #5 and #6. They are... intriguing, they seem to have a mysterious softness and a natural flow of things that excites me. Also, I believe that Schubert cannot go wrong, so I'll have to give the masses new listens and not write them off so quickly as I did in the first post.


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## Orange Soda King (Sep 14, 2010)

Try Herbert Howells' Hymnus Paradisi


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## Xaltotun (Sep 3, 2010)

Orange Soda King said:


> Try Herbert Howells' Hymnus Paradisi


Thank you, thank you; I know nothing about this one, let's see...


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

Try Beethoven's Ninth conducted by Fricsay (my favorite of about 28 Ninths I own).

For a small and delightful piece try Beethoven's Choral Fantasy (like the Ninth, the choral part is the last part).

I really like Beethoven's Missa Solemnis (Mass in D) and out of several I own, the Ormandy one is my favorite.


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