Favorite version of Ave Maria?

[SKYIO]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2ASBDFjPhs
I'v listened to many versions and this one is at least in the top 3. It has a lot more power then other versions.

[pjme]

  And we all thought you were looking for something LIKE the Ave Maria...!

Peter

[pjme]

Good to know: 

The piece consists of a melody by Gounod especially designed to be superimposed over the Prelude No. 1 in C major, BWV 846, from Book I of J.S. Bach's The Well-Tempered Clavier, written some 137 years earlier. Although published in instrumental versions and fitted to various texts during Gounod's lifetime, the claim that he never 'wrote' it appears to be literally true.[1]
Gounod's father-in-law Pierre-Joseph-Guillaume Zimmermann transcribed the improvisation and in 1853 made an arrangement for violin (or cello) with piano and harmonium. The same year it appeared with the words of Alphonse de Lamartine's poem Le livre de la vie ("The Book of Life").[2] In 1859 Jacques Léopold Heugel published a version with the familiar Latin text. The version of Bach's prelude used by Gounod includes the "Schwencke measure" (m.23), a measure apparently added by Christian Friedrich Gottlieb Schwencke in an attempt to correct what he allegedly deemed a "faulty" progression, even though this sort of progression was standard in Bach's music.[3]
Alongside Schubert's Ave Maria (another contrafactum), the Bach/Gounod Ave Maria has become a fixture at wedding masses, funerals and quinceañeras. There are many different instrumental arrangements including for violin and guitar, string quartet, piano solo, cello, and even trombones. Opera singers, such as Luciano Pavarotti, as well as choirs have recorded it hundreds of times during the twentieth century.
Later in his career, Gounod composed an unrelated setting of Ave Maria for a four-part SATB choir.


http://www.musimem.com/gounod.htm


Que dire alors du fameux Ave Maria qui, avec Faust, est, pour beaucoup, la seule œuvre que l'on sache attribuer à Charles Gounod, quand on ne le confond pas avec celui de Schubert ! Eh bien, précisément parlons en ! Cet Ave Maria qui fit tant pour la popularité de son "auteur", Gounod ne l'écrivit jamais ! Un jour notre compositeur s'était mis au piano devant son futur beau-père, le pianiste réputé Zimmermann ; il improvisa alors sur le Premier Prélude en ut du Clavecin bien Tempéré une mélodie jugée ravissante. Gounod l'ayant répétée une seconde fois, Zimmermann la nota puis, quelques jours plus tard, la fit entendre à son futur gendre jouée par un violon et soutenue par un petit chœur.

Quelque temps après on en fit un arrangement pour piano, harmonium et violon ou violoncelle sous le titre de Méditation qui eut du succès à plusieurs reprises au concert. C'est encore plus tard que, à l'instigation de Zimmermann, l'éditeur Heugel transcrivit cette Méditation qui devint ainsi ce fameux Ave Maria que Gounod n'écrivit jamais bien qu'il ne le reniât point et qui devait parcourir le monde dans plus de quinze arrangements...



Here are a few alternatives:

Stravinsky: https://youtu.be/Ddho23VkBik

Josquin Desprez: https://youtu.be/LUAgAF4Khmg

Francis Poulenc: https://youtu.be/lkxTlp7bW-0

Anton Bruckner: https://youtu.be/vbHKnUhdv8g

de Victoria: https://youtu.be/YXyqPDU0_fM

Enjoy!

P.

[SKYIO]

Out of those links I feel the best with the last (de victoria), I even liked it though im not keen on the others.

You know in the end I never did find my French Ave maria-like song. Im always keeping an eye out for sentences including french words and the word opera, who knows I might find it some day. If I do I'l be sure to post it here!

[pjme]

Aha! that's the spirit!

Keep listening and keep us informed.

Not French - just beautiful:

Jacob Arcadelt: https://youtu.be/us4mCpNMzc0

Mascagni's very operatic version of the Ave Maria may be to your liking...
https://youtu.be/4V3Mo4Q8_TE

Or, very subdued and almost dark, Verdi: https://youtu.be/qnnMXHIXxQs

A British Ave Maria, Holst : https://youtu.be/pwpxAtJS-Sc

[SKYIO]

The first link was not good but It made me come across this which was beautiful
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36Y_ztEW1NE

The second link was quite strong, and while it didn't resonate with me, I can very well understand its beauty.

I didnt like the third link but I came across this which seemed like an improved version.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kV7l0uqOD_8


I think the most important thing for me in Opera is that the Singing has to carried by some strong pronounced music in the background. I think its the reason why Schuberts version has 35 million views. It resonates on a Musical and  Opera'cal level.   

[pjme]

Sorry, I gave Mascagni twice.

Giuseppe Verdi now has the correct url.

https://youtu.be/qnnMXHIXxQs

Too bad you don't like Gustav Holst.

I never heard of Franz Biebl (1906 – 2001).

Even in Chanticleer's version it did little for me. Really too sugary &  sentimental....

https://youtu.be/XVyCJlPiHFg

[pjme]

Here is an atonal Ave Maria - by Fartein Valen.

https://youtu.be/hT3VHKqQKZA

[Jo498]

I am not sure I understand reply #2 correctly but the famous Schubert is to my knowledge not based on other music. (Or if it is, what is it based on?)
It is not an "Ave Maria" in the strict sense either. It is a song about a maiden in distress praying and Ave Maria to the Blessed Virgin and therefore those words (but only those in Latin) appear in the song.

[pjme]

Wikipedia explains it all - up to Walt Disney and Leopold Stokowsky.!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ave_Maria_(Schubert)

and here:

http://www.rogerrossimusic.com/avemaria/the_great_ave_marias.php




P.

[Jo498]

Ah, I completely misunderstood: I thought that Schubert had taken a musical idee from an existing actual "Ave Maria". I knew all along that it was "Ellens Gesang" from some Scott narrative.

While I was not aware of the fact that the original song was later on adapted to fit a complete latin "Ave Maria", this makes sense because of the popularity of the melody.

[pjme]

So, alles klar!

And Mendelssohn's Ave maria is a beauty aswel.

https://youtu.be/6ys-3Uox4Sg


P.