20th Century Choral Music

[knight66]

Thanks, I have ordered it. So together with my Mathias, the year will end with some new sounds for me. Mind you; I hope these will give me more pleasure than my first endurance test, this morning, through Messiaen's Turangalila; which felt like an endless tuning-up of a very large orchestra.

Mike

[Dundonnell]

Thanks, I have ordered it. So together with my Mathias, the year will end with some new sounds for me. Mind you; I hope these will give me more pleasure than my first endurance test, this morning, through Messiaen's Turangalila; which felt like an endless tuning-up of a very large orchestra.

Mike

Turangalila is not my favourite work although I do like those menacing brass fanfares which make up the statue theme I once sat through a live performance conducted by Mark Wigglesworth. Where he now?

[knight66]

Well, one hearing of such a complex work; but it is clearly a piece that lives moment by moment, not for cumulative effect. That being so, a lot of it left me cold around some vignettes that were beautiful.

Mike

[Dancing Divertimentian]

Thanks, I have ordered it. So together with my Mathias, the year will end with some new sounds for me. Mind you; I hope these will give me more pleasure than my first endurance test, this morning, through Messiaen's Turangalila; which felt like an endless tuning-up of a very large orchestra.

Mike

I'm fairly confident you won't be put off by Gilgamesh, Mike. It doesn't strive for austerity like Turangalila. Yes it's adventurous but there's a palatability that gives it a winning edge.

Looking forward to a review!

[Christo]

Now the topic has shifted form `oratorio' to choral music, I may make another attempt of listing some personal favourites. Many have been mentioned already by Dundonnell and Vandermolen. My own list would also include larger choral pieces not yet (?) mentioned here, like:

Khatchatur Avetissian, Armenian Oratorio `In Memoriam 1915'
Ernest Bloch, Avodath Hakodesh (Sacred Service)
Paul Constantinescu, Oratoriul bizantin de Crăciun (Byzantine Christmas Oratorio)
Leoš Janáček, Vecné evangelium (The Eternal Gospel)
William Matthias, Lux Aeterna
Carl Orff, De temporum fine comoedia
Arvo Pärt, Kanon Pokajanen
Veljo Tormis, Unustatud Rahvad (Forgotten Peoples)
Erkki-Sven Tüür, Oratorio Ante Finem Saeculi
Heitor Villa-Lobos, Chôros no. 10

[Dundonnell]

Now the topic has shifted form `oratorio' to choral music, I may make another attempt of listing some personal favourites. Many have been mentioned already by Dundonnell and Vandermolen. My own list would also include larger choral pieces not yet (?) mentioned here, like:

Khatchatur Avetissian, Armenian Oratorio `In Memoriam 1915'
Ernest Bloch, Avodath Hakodesh (Sacred Service)
Paul Constantinescu, Oratoriul bizantin de Crăciun (Byzantine Christmas Oratorio)
Leoš Janáček, Vecné evangelium (The Eternal Gospel)
William Matthias, Lux Aeterna
Carl Orff, De temporum fine comoedia
Arvo Pärt, Kanon Pokajanen
Veljo Tormis, Unustatud Rahvad (Forgotten Peoples)
Erkki-Sven Tüür, Oratorio Ante Finem Saeculi
Heitor Villa-Lobos, Chôros no. 10

Oh, my goodness! I don't know many of these! Well, actually...only the Bloch and the Villa-Lobos and the Mathias(see lengthy post above, Johan )

How many are commercially available?

[knight66]

I thought I knew quite a lot of choral music and I don't know any of those pieces.

I am away now for most of the week. I will post summat on another of my favourites when I get back. Meantime, I hope you will all generate lots more that I want to read.

Cheers,

Mike

[The new erato]

Are we talking a capella as well? In which case I'd put a word in for Kreneks Lamentationes Jeremiah.

[knight66]

All comers are welcome, can you tell us about the piece?

Mike

[Christo]

Oh, my goodness! I don't know many of these! Well, actually...only the Bloch and the Villa-Lobos and the Mathias(see lengthy post above, Johan )

How many are commercially available?

All of these pieces are commercially available on CD - I know, I own them - some of them (e.g. Villa-Lobos, Janáček, Bloch) in multiple recordings.

Sorry about Matthias' Lux Aeterna - I did observe yous comment on it, but supposed it was in another thread.  I love the piece, though, and was very happy to read about it for the first time in my life (I think I played it shortly after the Chandos recording was released in the 1980s, but didn't read about it ever since - so, many thanks that you pay it the attention it surely deserves!

I now see I forgot to mention a couple of other favourites. My favourite Pärt, for example, is the sublimely concentrated (and performed) Te Deum, not just the lengthy Kanon Pokajanen. Or take Ottorino Respighi's long `lyric poem' La Primavera (1922), for soli, chorus and orchestra - a 1994 Marco Polo recording just released anew on Naxos.

And may I strongly support the nomination of Gilgamesh, too? 

[Dundonnell]

Correction. I do have Janackek's 'The Eternal Gospel'

Runs off to play it again

[vandermolen]

Bloch's Sacred Service is one of my favourites; like a cross between Vaughan Williams and Ben Hur  I have versions by Geoffrey Simon, Bernsein, Bloch, Elli Jaffe and Diego Fasolis. Simon's remastered, reissued version on Chandos is a good recommendation although's Bloch's own recording (with the LSO and sung in English) is the most impassioned version.

[Dundonnell]

Bloch's Sacred Service is one of my favourites; like a cross between Vaughan Williams and Ben Hur  I have versions by Geoffrey Simon, Bernsein, Bloch, Elli Jaffe and Diego Fasolis. Simon's remastered, reissued version on Chandos is a good recommendation although's Bloch's own recording (with the LSO and sung in English) is the most impassioned version.

Oh Jeffrey! Surely you mean "a cross between Vaughan Williams and Miklos Rozsa"? You can't have a cross between a composer and a film!

(Deepest apologies for being such an annoying pedant....but I don't get to do it in school anymore )

[karlhenning]

You can't have a cross between a composer and a film!

'Tain't natchrel!

[vandermolen]

Oh Jeffrey! Surely you mean "a cross between Vaughan Williams and Miklos Rozsa"? You can't have a cross between a composer and a film!

(Deepest apologies for being such an annoying pedant....but I don't get to do it in school anymore )

OK Colin, as it's you. More then like a cross between Vaughan Williams and Quo Vadis 

[Dundonnell]

OK Colin, as it's you. More then like a cross between Vaughan Williams and Quo Vadis 

Hehe

[Lethevich]

Oh, my goodness! I don't know many of these! Well, actually...only the Bloch and the Villa-Lobos and the Mathias(see lengthy post above, Johan )

How many are commercially available?

The Tüür I uploaded for someone ages ago, and still have it hosted:

http://rapidshare.com/files/122395278/01_-_Ante_Finem_Saeculi_-_I._Tempus_I.mp3
http://rapidshare.com/files/122399293/02_-_Ante_Finem_Saeculi_-_II._Tempus_II.mp3
http://rapidshare.com/files/122399987/03_-_Ante_Finem_Saeculi_-_III._Tempus_III.mp3
http://rapidshare.com/files/122401709/04_-_Ante_Finem_Saeculi_-_IV._Tempus_IV.mp3

It's from an OOP Finlandia disc, the other part of the disc (Symphony No.2) has been reissued, but this has not.

[mozartsneighbor]

Frank Martin's Requiem has already been mentioned, but not his Mass for Double Choir, which is one of my favorite choral pieces. This is an excellent performance, and the Pizzetti isn't half bad either:

[Dundonnell]

Agreed! Good call

[Maciek]

I'm surprised Part has been only mentioned once here. What about his Summa? What about the Stabat Mater? Not being much of a Part fan I have to admit the latter is a truly great piece.