[ Musical Heritage Society / 2 CD Box Set ]
Release Date: Friday 3 March 1989
Should this item be out of stock at the time of your order, we would expect to be able to supply it to you within 2 - 4 weeks.
Franz Schmidt's magnum opus oratorio adapting the last book of the New Testament, the Revelations of St. John (and apocalyptic revelations they were), has been an imposing mystery to music lovers. Rarely is it encountered in concert, and recordings have featured intriguing collections of musicians (tenor Fritz Wunderlich in one, conductor Dmitri Mitropoulos in another), though often in less-than-great sound and without English texts. This is the first recording that could unlock the seals for non-Germanic listeners: it has all the surface polish this music craves, while conductor Franz Welser-Most loves the music and knows it well. As dictated by the composer, St. John is sung by a vigorous heldentenor, Stig Andersen. Rene Pape is the voice of the Lord--and sounds like it. But with so much help from performers, the piece is likely to remain a cult item. Its dense, wordy text floats like corks on the chromatic salt sea of Schmidt's orchestration, guided by a committed, unsentimental sense of dramaturgy but not much sense of melody. --David Patrick Stearns