Classic Ross Amico

Tag: Oratorio

Where Have All the Oratorios Gone?

It’s January 6. Epiphany. The Feast of the Three Kings. The Christian feast day that marks, among other things, the Magi’s visit to the Christ Child.

I know I’ve lamented in the past about how so many of the magnificent classical music Christmas works of the past millennium have disappeared from the airwaves. Of the larger works, it seems only Handel’s “Messiah,” Bach’s “Christmas Oratorio,” and of course Tchaikovsky’s (secular) “The Nutcracker” are guaranteed.

Thankfully, I have an enormous record library with at least three shelves devoted exclusively to Christmas music, so I’m able to work through a lot of the forgotten and/or neglected masterworks at home and in the car. But it’s not the same as somebody else pulling and programming the music and knowing that I am part of a unified listening community.

I feel the same way when watching a movie that is broadcast, or actually in a theater, as opposed to playing it from my own collection or streaming it. It’s wonderful to live in an age when these things are possible, but it is just not the same as knowing that I’m a part of a communal experience. (That said, I’m certainly not going to watch “It’s a Wonderful Life” on network television with a thousand commercial breaks!)

I must give a tip of the Ebenezer Scrooge top hat to Yle Klassinen in Helsinki for airing Franz Liszt’s “Christus” complete. That station really is a marvel. Oh how I love my digital radio! Of course, I don’t speak Finnish, but I can usually make out the performers when they are announced and the playlists are posted online.

Anyway, I had already listened to the Dorati recording on my own time. I’ve done so for many, many years. It’s enriched my Christmases ever since I first encountered it on the air, broadcast on Philadelphia’s late, lamented WFLN, back in the early 1980s. Time was, when serious classical Christmas music commenced with Advent. Yes, it was leavened with gems like Victor Hely-Hutchinson’s “Carol Symphony,” the aforementioned “Nutcracker,” and Leopold Mozart’s “A Musical Sleigh-Ride,” in the hilarious recording by the Eduard Melkus Ensemble that includes the neighing horses and barking dogs. I looked forward to hearing that every year. I snapped it up when it was reissued on compact disc and have included it in my own broadcasts for decades.

Those works have their place, but it seems the serious, large-scale choral works are all going away. Commerce, secularism, short attention spans, ignorance, and grievance all work against the simple enjoyment of a lot of masterful music. It’s much safer to play three-minute arrangements of familiar Christmas carols. Over and over and over again.

I grant you, three hours is a lot of radio real estate to give up to Liszt’s “Christus.” But can’t anyone even carve out an hour for Vaughan Williams’ “Hodie?” I suppose I should just shut up and be thankful that RVW’s “Fantasia on Christmas Carols” is still in rotation.

I count myself very fortunate to have been able to share “Christus” many times over the years. I know I’ve played it complete on WXLV, WPRB, and WWFM – once I even preempted the weekly opera broadcast – and excerpted the purely orchestral movements even more frequently, working them into my morning and afternoon playlists. “The March of the Three Holy Kings” is a high point.

I am sorry I don’t have a stretch of air-time during which to play it for you now, but the entire Dorati recording of the oratorio (one of three recordings I own, and still my preferred) is posted on YouTube.

If you want to cut to the chase, here’s the march of the Kings.

Think it sounds an awful lot like Wagner’s Wotan? There’s likely a reason for that. I’ve posted about it before.

https://rossamico.com/2023/01/06/three-kings-music-mystery-wagner-liszt/

I try to be sensitive to other people’s faiths and belief systems, and frankly I am no zealot, but when it comes to music, I am very much a fundamentalist. This is not about pushing Christianity down anyone’s throat as much as a desire to preserve and disseminate the sublime Christmas works, many of them by top-tier composers, presented, like the classic movies on TCM, complete and uncut.

Of course, most of these recordings I’ve played over the years are from my own collection. I was very fortunate to be able to do my own programming, for hours at a time, for the better part of three decades. In such a situation, when a radio host loses his platform, countless hours of repertoire go with him. You’ll still get “Messiah,” but you probably won’t get Josef Rheinberger’s “The Star of Bethlehem” (here posted as a playlist of nine separate videos).

Rutland Boughton’s “Bethlehem” is another Christmas work I’m crazy about. You won’t find it in many record libraries at radio stations here in the U.S. But I’ve got it, and I’ve aired it. Rather than write about it again, I’ll refer you to one of my teasers from a few years ago.

https://rossamico.com/2017/12/21/merlin-in-bethlehem-a-christmas-music-surprise/

If you’re a Vaughan Williams fan, I think you will find it delightful. For a long time, I was unable to share any of the audio online, due to Hyperion Records’ justifiably Draconian practice of not allowing any its recordings on YouTube. But the company is now in other hands, so here it is, finally, as a playlist – albeit with the tracks posted separately, so prepare to have to skip an occasional ad.

On the Twelfth Day of Christmas, your resident classical music curmudgeon gives to you… three Christmas oratorios. If I splurged for a dozen, this post would be four times the length!

Have yourself a merry “Little Christmas!”

——–

IMAGE: Detail from Edward Burne-Jones’ “Adoration of the Magi”

January 6, 2026
Tim Keyes’ Consort Celebrates 30 Years

Tim Keyes’ day job is that of Pastoral Assistant of Music and Liturgy at the Catholic Church of St. Charles Borromeo in Skillman, NJ. But he’s also a prolific composer of oratorios, symphonies, concertos, film scores, chamber music, instrumental works, and choral pieces. His most recent work, “The Pool,” completes a triptych of sacred oratorios inspired by episodes from the Gospel of John. With its first performance at Princeton University’s Richardson Auditorium this Saturday at 8 p.m., the group of musicians Keyes directs, the Tim Keyes’ Consort, will celebrate 30 years.

The orchestra and chorus are made up of professional and amateur musicians. Mentorship is central to the Consort’s mission. Saturday’s concert will open with a work by Rutgers Mason Gross student Amelia Cunningham, “Irish Overture,” and Ithaca graduate Kathryn Dauer will return to conduct Keyes’ “Adagio.” Read more about it in my article in the Princeton weekly U.S. 1, out today.

https://www.communitynews.org/princetoninfo/artsandentertainment/three-decades-three-oratorios-for-tim-keyes/article_20876a40-2d2a-4e8a-8799-c8901ac4b582.html

June 11, 2025
Bruch’s Moses A Passover Oratorio Rediscovered

With Passover upon us, last week I was going through my collection, looking for something to listen to, and I was astonished by how many recordings I have of works inspired by Moses, the plagues, the Exodus, and the Ten Commandments. In the oratorio department alone, there’s Handel’s “Israel in Egypt,” Leopold Koželuch’s “Moise in Egitto,” Paul Dessau’s “Haggadah del Pesach,” and R. Nathaniel Dett’s “The Ordering of Moses.” I’m pretty sure somewhere I’ve also got a recording of Anton Rubinstein’s “Moses.”

Here’s another one I picked up from Princeton Record Exchange for $2 in 2022 and, like the Rubinstein, never got around to listening to it – until now. And it’s been in my player more or less all week. Max Bruch’s “Moses” is no Mendelssohn’s “Elijah,” but it’s agreeable enough, and it has its own rewards as entertainment, even if it never quite seems to achieve the lift – that level of transcendence – you experience when everything comes together in the greatest masterworks.

“Elijah” invites the most obvious comparison for several reasons. Aside from the fact that Elijah’s cup is present and filled at the Passover Seder, Mendelssohn’s dynamic, moving rendition of the prophet’s story was the most successful Biblical oratorio of the 19th century, and it’s the only one that still seems to get performed with any frequency.

Also, taking into account Bruch’s most popular works, most people I think would classify him as a composer of the Mendelssohnian variety, a conservative Romantic, as opposed to a radical, Wagnerian one. It’s not for no reason that in the glory days of the LP, Bruch’s evergreen Violin Concerto No. 1 was always on the flip side of recordings of Mendelssohn’s own masterpiece in the genre.

So imagine my surprise to discover that Bruch’s “Moses” contains at least as much Wagner as it does Mendelssohn. Perhaps even more so. The irony of classical music’s most notorious antisemite (i.e. Wagner) being mentioned in connection with an oratorio about the most revered of Jewish prophets is not lost on me. I hasten to add, I am speaking more of the Wagner of “Tannhäuser” and “Lohengrin” than of “The Ring” and “Tristan.” You won’t find any of the harmonic innovation, but you will find leitmotif and certainly a Wagnerian influence in the choral writing and in the dramatic vocal parts for Moses (bass), Aaron (tenor), and the Angel of the Lord (soprano).

All the soloists on this Orfeo recording from 1999, featuring the Bamberg Symphony conducted by Claus Peter Flor, do service to the material, with Michael Volle the standout in the title role.

Interestingly, another work it brings to mind is Josef Rheinberger’s “The Star of Bethlehem.” Different season, different faith, but something about Bruch’s handling of Moses’ inspirational leitmotif recalls – for me, anyway – Rheinberger’s Christmas cult classic, composed in 1890, five years before Bruch’s Passover oratorio. Again for this listener, Bruch’s “Moses” never achieves the same lift or touching sincerity.

Another widely-held assumption, of course, is that Bruch himself was Jewish. It’s easy to understand why, as his treatment of the Yom Kippur chant “Kol Nidre” for cello and orchestra is easily the most popular of the classical music settings. Bruch handles the tune with great sensitivity and evidently pours his heart into it. So it surprises many (as it did, later, the Nazis) to learn that Bruch was indeed Protestant. He did, however, recognize a good tune when he heard one, and clearly when he took up his pencil he was inspired.

It always knocks me off my pins to be reminded that Bruch was born in 1838 – five years after Brahms and three years before Dvořák – yet he died in 1920. Brahms checked-out in 1897 and Dvořák in 1904. Romanticism was still very much in its glorious twilight. What changes Bruch lived through! For someone who was clearly an heir of Mendelssohn to have experienced the era of “The Rite of Spring” boggles the mind.

Anyway, if you’re interested to hear what Bruch does with the Moses story, here’s a link. Just don’t go into it expecting anything special from the Golden Calf episode, which is nowhere near the level of that in Schoenberg’s “Moses und Aron.” It’s more like the Druid shenanigans of Mendelssohn’s “Die erste Walpurgisnacht” – more apt to amuse than to scandalize or to conjure any sense of genuine transgression or blasphemy.

A nice effort from Bruch, but unlikely to dislodge Elijah from his chariot. Still, someone might consider performing it sometime.

April 13, 2025
Passover Music Dessau & Koželuch

Chag Sameach!

For the first day of Passover, here’s a complete performance of the oratorio “Haggadah shel Pesach,” by German-Jewish composer Paul Dessau.

Dessau was a successful theatrical musician, who worked both in opera, as an assistant to Otto Klemperer and Bruno Walter, and with cinema orchestras. However, in 1933, with the appointment of Adolf Hitler as chancellor of Germany, living conditions became intolerable for Dessau, who fled to Paris, and then the United States. He settled in Hollywood in 1943. Later, in 1948, he returned to East Berlin, where he taught at the Staatliche Schauspielschule (Public Drama School) and became vice president of the Academy of Arts.

While in exile in Paris, Dessau composed “Haggadah del Pesach,” on a libretto by Max Brod. Brod is probably best known as the friend and biographer of Franz Kafka. Since neither Dessau nor Brod were fluent in Hebrew, they enlisted the help of Rabbi Mordecai Langer to assist with translation.

Read at the Passover Seder, the Haggadah relates the story of Exodus and explains the Passover rituals. Brod interpolates additional texts from the Torah, Talmud, and Midrash. The oratorio describes “The Feast of Passover,” “Moses Slays the Egyptian,” “The Girls by the Well,” “The Saving of the Girls,” “Chorus,” “The Entrance of Pharoah,” “The Plagues,” “The Slaying of the First-Born,” “Midnight Hymn,” and “Israel’s Departure from Bondage to Freedom.”

Whether your taste runs to maror or charoset, I hope you’ll find something in it to enjoy.

Not your cup of Manischewitz? Try Leopold Koželuch’s “Moisè in Egitto” (“Moses in Egypt”).

Koželuch, a very capable composer, probably would have enjoyed a more respected standing among his peers, if not for a markedly irascible personality. According to legend, he delighted in trash-talking both Haydn and Mozart, which didn’t sit well in certain circles. Is it true? Probably to the extent anything circulated about Salieri is true.

Regardless of what his colleagues may have thought of him, he never seemed to lack for patronage. He was offered the position of court organist in Salzburg, vacated by Mozart, but declined. Later, following Mozart’s death, he assumed the responsibilities of Kammer Kapellmeister (conductor) and Hofmusik Compositor (composer) at the Imperial Court in Vienna, at twice Mozart’s salary.

Yeah, he could be a little rough (Beethoven once described him as “Miserabilis”), but he was also a shrewd political operator.

There’s no questioning his talent. And face it, even Moses had his moments.

April 23, 2024
Liszt’s Christus: A Christmas Oratorio You Need to Hear

I try to make it a point to listen to Franz Liszt’s oratorio, “Christus,” every year, whether I need it or not.

It helps that I love Liszt, of course. Not all of his music – anyone as prolific as he was had to turn out a clunker now and then – but he was such a noble, well-intentioned guy. I’ve been a hardcore admirer ever since I read Alan Walker’s biography, now probably 23 years ago. The years, they do fly by! And having heard so many performances of his Piano Sonata certainly hasn’t hurt.

Liszt was one of the most original musical thinkers of the 19th century. In fact, I’d go as far as to say that, after Beethoven, he was possibly the most influential musician of the 1800s. There was likely no composer who didn’t at some point make a decision to follow or to react against him.

He was, admittedly, hit-and-miss. Liszt wrote a lot of astonishingly wonderful music, but also a fair amount that might charitably be described as slightly embarrassing. Arguably, he was more successful as a philosopher and an innovator than he was as a consistent executor of his ideas. Richard Wagner (who became Liszt’s son-in-law), to name only one, would have been a very different composer without Liszt. And we all know how influential Wagner was.

Liszt’s flamboyance was legendary, but his reputation in that regard stemmed mostly from the overwhelming sensations he conjured in recital, and his audiences’ hysterical responses to them. He could also be introverted, thoughtful, and pious. He was so pious, in fact, that at a point he wound up taking minor orders and living in a cell in Rome, where he was known as the Abbé Liszt. His sacred works were not mere posturing.

The magnificent “Christus” is an oratorio in three parts – spanning some three hours in length – that is really part oratorio, part loose collection of symphonic poems. Part I, the Christmas portion, contains two purely orchestral movements, which together comprise about half an hour. The concluding “March of the Three Holy Kings” is a corker. It’s also interesting in that one of the movement’s main themes is nearly identical to Wagner’s motif for Wotan. Which came first? Both “Christus” and “Das Rheingold” were written at just about the same time.

I know it’s an extraordinarily busy time of year, but do yourself a favor: send your regrets to the office holiday party, seclude yourself in a quiet place with no distractions (a sofa, with the Christmas lights on, would do nicely), and marvel at this ambitious, romantic music.

I own three recordings of the piece, and this one, conducted by Antal Dorati, is far and away the most satisfying.

If you find you just can’t get enough, there’s also Liszt’s “Christmas Tree Suite.” Liszt dedicated the work to his granddaughter, Daniela von Bülow. Some of the early movements are reflections on familiar carols (including “Adeste Fideles,” in yet another evocation of the Three Holy Kings), but as the suite progresses, Liszt just kind of dreamily wanders off into the future the way only Liszt can. The suite was first performed on Christmas Day, 1881. All the movement titles are listed below the video at the link.

What else is there to say, but Merry Liszt-mas!

Liszt takes the cloth (left); Jesus gets frankincense and myrrh

December 20, 2023

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