infotext:
Two incredibly intensive works on the events of Good Friday:
Liszt wished for the renewal of Catholic church music, for which the Protestant legacy of Johann Sebastian Bach was the godfather. However, Franz Liszt places Bach's legacy in a musical landscape that touches the boundaries of tonality. Although the music emphasizes its folksy character, Via Crucis is not easy to perform utility music. Franz Liszt stages a modest but extremely ingeniously designed Stations of the Cross devotional. The special feature of the present recording is the version for choir, soloists and piano four hands authorized by Liszt himself.
In the 19th century, at great risk, the priest Yang-Eop Choe looked after the banned Catholic community scattered throughout Korea. His letters, written in Latin, testify to an unconditional devotion to God and his willingness to die for the faith. In her new work for choir a cappella, the Korean confronts Younghi Pagh Paan the letters with excerpts from the Good Friday Responsory.
(At a Stations of the Cross, Christians commemorate the individual stations that Jesus passed on his way from the condemnation by Pontius Pilate to the crucifixion. In this way they prepare for Easter, the feast of Jesus' resurrection from the dead.)
program:
Franz Liszt (1811-1886) Way of the cross (1878) Les 14 stations de la Croix 48:57 [01] Vexilla regis prodeunt 04:36 [02] Station I – Jesus is condemned to death 01:37 [08] Station VII – Jesus falls for the second time 01:36 [14] Station XIII – Jesus is taken down from the cross 04:57 Harald Martini, baritone (Jesus) WDR Radio Choir Cologne
Younghi Pagh Paan (* 1945) [16] Vide Domine, vide affectionem nostram (2007) 14:00 Work commissioned by WDR Benita Borbonus, soprano WDR Radio Choir Cologne total time 63:12 |
Press:
Although it waited 50 years for its first performance, Liszt's visionary Via crucis has become his most often-recorded choral work. Or should that be works? For despite the singularity of its idiom (not so much forward-looking as leaping beyond temporal boundaries entirely), it offers a multiplicity of performance options—so many, in fact, that it's a challenge to find two recordings that make precisely the same editorial choices. To further muddy the ontological waters, as I've suggested in the past (31:3), it's not clear whether it's better described as a choral work or as a keyboard work with vocal obbligato. There are vast stretches where the singers are absent (four of the 15 movements have no voices at all, and in several others, the vocal contributions are minimal); and while it can be performed without the singers, it can't do without the keyboard. For the record, what we have here is the version with four-hand piano accompaniment, with solo voices for the women's trio sections and instrumental support for the solo quartet in the opening movement and for the two big chorales. Do the editorial choices matter? In this case, not very much. Much as I admire the hefty full-chorus sound, and much as I appreciate many of the details along the way (say, the radiance of the three Stabat maters and the attention to harmonic color in the Fourth Station), this is largely a dutiful trudge through the score. Tempos are slow (the “O Traurigkeit” chorale, which ought to take about two minutes, lasts more than three here). More important, the pianists prefer a thick sound and a heavy rhythmic tread; as a result, when the singers are silent, the music seems airless and aimless. Among those recordings currently listed by arkivmusic.com, I'd opt for the Best, although Dobra's competing performance of the four-hand edition (16:1)—vastly more agile and considerably quicker in pace—and De Zeeuw's high romantic reading are also worth trying to track down. Best generously pairs the Via crucis with a committed reading of the Missa Choralis. Instead of more Liszt, Rubert Huber, a Karajan protégé with strong contemporary music credentials, has chosen a new work by Younghi Pagh-Paan (b. 1945). Pagh-Paan was trained both in Seoul and in Europe, where she studied with Klaus Huber and Brian Ferneyhough, among others. Her setting of texts by Yang-Eop Choe (a Korean priest), interleaved with excerpts from the Good Friday Responsory, shows her allegiances to the modernism of the more high-minded wing of post-World War II avant-garde, rather than to the gentler practices of Lauridson, Taverner, or Pärt. It's a densely dissonant piece, with jagged lines and irregular rhythms, the singers often sounding more like competitors than partners; in the end, color and texture dominate over rhythm or harmonic motion. If you think of early Penderecki, you'll be in the right league, although not necessarily in the same ballpark. It's moderately compelling as you're listening, but it leaves a rather generic afterglow. Excellent sound—and the Pagh paan makes good use of the surround sound potential. On the whole, though, you can probably skip this. Peter J Rabinowitz
Franz Liszt / Younghi Pagh-Paan GrauSchumacher Piano Duo. WDR Radio Choir Cologne. Rupert Huber (director)
On ne le répètera jamais assez, le grand œuvre sacré de Franz Liszt est à redécouvrir et à méditer pour ses richesses musicales certes, mais également pour sa pensée profonde plaçant l'humain au center d'un univers en proie au doute dans une dualité ombre /lumière que chacun porte en soi. "Via Crucis" participe de cette reflexion. Composée pour soprano, alto, tenor et basse solos, chœur mixte et piano, l'œuvre est issue d'une inspiration picturale, celle provoquée par les designs de Johann Friedrich Overbeck (1789-1869). Ce n'est qu'en 1929, en Hongrie, que la partition sera crée. Cette dernière retrace le chemin de croix du Christ dans ses quatorze stations. Associée à ce chef-d'œuvre, l'œuvre de la compositrice Younghi Pagh-Paan née en 1945 en Corée du sud "Domine, vide afflictionem nostram" pour chœur mixte a capella datant de 2007, s'intègre parfaitement à la dimension spiritual évoquee. Voici donc un enregistrement example dans lequel l'ensemble des artists en présence est à saluer, pour son engagement, mais aussi et surtout pour la ferveur qu'il dégage dans a profondeur musicale chaleureuse et inspired. A découvrir sans tarder pour an inoubliable voyage in terre de reflexion… Jean Jacques Millo It is worth repeating: Franz Liszt's great sacred works deserve rediscovering and meditating certainly for their musical wealth, but also for their deep contemplation that places the human being at the heart of a universe beset by doubt in a shadow/light duality that each of us carries. “Via Crucis” is one of those contemplations. Composed for soprano, alto, tenor and bass solos, mixed choir and piano, the work was inspired by the drawings of Johann Friedrich Overbeck (1789-1869). It was not until 1929 that the score was premiered in Hungary. It relates to Christ's fourteen Stations of the Cross. Like this masterpiece, the work by the composer Younghi Pagh-Paan (she was born in 1945 in South Korea) “Domine, vide afflictionem nostrum” for mixed chorus a capella, dating from 2007, goes together well with the spiritual dimension cited above. Here then is an exemplary recording in which all the participating artists must be praised for their commitment, but above all for the zeal they exhibit in musical profundity that is warm and inspired. Here is a recording to be discovered without further ado, one that will take you on unforgettable travels to a land of reflection… Translation Lawrence Schulman
Sacred rarities Interpretation: The deeply religious Abbé Liszt and the choral music: it is almost like a closed book. The fact that the exemplary edition of the Neos label (other 'little ones' have meanwhile also been busy) broke the spell and at least some of the devotional music from the late creative years was snatched from oblivion is almost like making amends. 'Via Crucis', the 14 Stations of the Cross in the version for choir, soloists and piano four hands, is a meditative collection that announces Jesus' path of suffering in an unadorned, song-like diction, beginning with the pronouncement of judgment through to the descent from the cross. The music condenses the events down to the essentials. In fact, the devotion to the Way of the Cross, which was supported by archaic piety and asceticism, was in no way recognized by the Catholic Church. The musical sparseness and rigor should certainly stand in the way of a broader audience. It's a shame that the 1984 recording with Reinbert de Leeuw (piano) and the Netherlands Chamber Choir fell victim to the cutbacks. Criticism by Prof. Egon Bezold |
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