Classical Works Spotlight #326--Schubert

[erik]

In the final two years of his life, Franz Schubert was moving his music into a very different sphere, one greatly influenced by Beethoven and one that would also have an impact on future Austro-German classical titans, from Brahms and Bruckner to Mahler and Schoenberg. One part of that legacy is the sacred work in this Easter weekend's Classical Works Spotlight.

Schubert: DEUTSCHE MESSE, D. 872

The vast number of works that Franz Schubert contributed to both the choral and sacred music fields is as large as any of his other contributions to other parts of the classical music world; but again, like so much of his work, it took until well into the 20th century for audiences to really appreciate them. Among these choral works are six distinct settings of the traditional Latin Mass, which continue the traditions set down by Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven. And in 1827, there was his “Deutsche Messe”, or German Mass. For this, he composed not for the liturgical Latin Mass, but to a sequence of German-language poems by Johann Phillipp Neumann, who commissioned the work from the composer, and who had provided the libretto for the composer’s unfinished opera “Shakuntala.” Schubert, realizing that he may not have had much longer to live (and realizing that his great mentor Beethoven was dying a slow death by the beginning of 1827), composed in a very innovative block-choral, homophonic style, suitable for congregational setting. Each of the nine hymns has its counterpart in the order of the traditional Latin Mass. What is so unusual about the orchestration required is that it calls for an unusually large wind section (pairs of oboes, bassoons, clarinets, and horns, plus three trombones), along with timpani, organ, and strings. It is occasionally known as the “Wind Mass” because of this. The work remained a prominent favorite among Austro-German audiences, especially in Vienna, well into the 20th century; but it was only during the 20th century itself that its existence was known beyond traditional European musical circles.



Bavarian Radio Symphony Chorus

Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra/WOLFGANG SAWALLISCH (EMI)

Included:
SALVE REGINA, D. 379
PSALM 23, D. 706
PSALM 92, D. 953
HYMN TO THE HOLY GHOST, D. 948
MASS NO. 2 IN G MAJOR, D. 167

Soprano: LUCIA POPP
Tenor: ADOLPH DALLAPOZZA
Baritone: DIETRICH FISCHER-DIESKAU

Capella Bavariae

[egoodstein]

The Sawallisch recordings of Schubert's religious music are terrific in general I think. Really standards of that genre in modern times IMO. This mass is an interesting example of juxtaposing the traditional mass form and relatively simple, almost folk like melodies into an accessible, vernacular nearly 'folk' text mass. The wind ensemble setting is effective and distinctive, if this is perhaps more on the side of 'charm' than 'profundity' per se. But uplifting and richly melodic. It's nice that Schubert's music in general has grown in stature over the past few decades, and even this very indigenously 'German/Austrian' one is more widely available thanks to artists like Sawallisch and others.

[erik]

I think that Schubert has probably had the longest time of any major composer, and this includes Mahler, of having a large amount of his orchestral and choral works become really well-known to the public; and in terms of the choral/sacred genre, yes, we are indeed grateful to Sawallisch for making these recordings in the early-to-mid 1980s with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra to give Schubert's output a much greater prominence now.