Spiritual Music - Cherubini's Requiem

[gprengel]

If someone would ask you for your dearest spirtual music among the Classics -
what would you say? This is what I would say:
Palestrina's Missa Papa Marcelli, Handel's Messiah and Dettinger TeDeum, Mozart's Requiem, Beethoven's Missa Solemnis, Schubert's Mass in Eb-Major and German Mass, various works by Mendelssohn - and Cherubini's Requiem!! Today I was walking through the forest with my MP3 Player playing this awesome and nowadays so neglected work. What a spiritual enjoyment I had there! It was a favourite work by Beethoven who even regarded it higher than the one from Mozart! In case you don't know it I put an example on

http://www.esnips.com/web/candlelight

Please listen to this oh so heavenly and mystical part at 3:12 and to the following great fugue...!!


If you want, you may also listen there to a work called The Sun, which I composed recently. It describes the rising, splendour and sunset of the sun...

Gerd

[HaydnFan]

Faure's Requiem, no question.

There are moments that are just simply breath-taking.

Also, I must say that there are Mahler moments that are completely spiritual...I am sure everyone would agree that many of these appear in the 2nd symphony.

I also agree with your Schubert and Palestrina for sure. Mozart's Requiem is a no-brainer. The others, I admit I am not so familiar with. I should give them a listen

[Sorrano]

Which Cherubini Requiem do you refer to? I would add to the list any and all of Bruckner's choral works, small and great; Verdi's 4 Sacred Pieces; and Berlioz's twin sisters, the Requiem and the Te Deum.

[Ateach Asc]

spiritual music

and let's not leave out Claudio Monteverdi's magnificent Vespers of the Virgin...

and the Hebrew liturgical musical settings by Rossetti...

but why limit to the range of spiritual music to that specifically programmed to accompany the various ecclesiastic texts??? for example... expanding the limits there is very little doubt that such works as the LVB string quartets, or the LVB sonatas for Piano and Cello, or even the 32 piano sonatas really do qualify as 'spiritual' music. ... because these works truly enter the depths of the mystical.

[HaydnFan]

but why limit to the range of spiritual music to that specifically programmed to accompany the various ecclesiastic texts??? .

You're right and I did mention Mahler's second symphony in my post...although it is called "Resurrection", it is not that of Christ to which he refers but rather the "hero" from his first symphony. Or so I have been told but I am sure there are a few interpretations.

[gprengel]

Which Cherubini Requiem do you refer to?

of course I refer to the one in c minor from 1816, the the later d-minor Requiem is not really interesting

[Peter]

What about Bach? Virtually every note he wrote is spiritual music!

[gprengel]

What about Bach? Virtually every note he wrote is spiritual music!

I am sorry, I personally don't found access to Bach's spiritual music yet. Even the famous Matthew passion does not touch me. The only piece in this regard which I fully love is the Dona nobis pacem of the b-minor Mass and various chorals, but (if I am not mistaken) they are only arranged by Bach.

But what about the Cherubini Requiem ... ? Did anyone listen to the passage at the website which I refered to? Any impressions? Why is it so seldom performed?

[lvbfanatic]

But what about the Cherubini Requiem ... ? Did anyone listen to the passage at the website which I refered to? Any impressions? Why is it so seldom performed?

The piece is nice. However, if you are trying to push this music, you may have a very hard and long uphill battle in terms of the sheer volume of the competition. For example, Monteverdi's 'Vespers' are stunning.

Ateach Asc noted quite correctly that music does not have to be accompaniment to ecclesistical texts in order to reach the 'spiritual' levels. And the LVB works Ateach mentioned are very much in that realm.

On a very personal note, the tragedy of the modern music reprodruction industry is that it has overwhelmed us with massive numbers of forgotten works, which when heard, immediately reveal the reasons for their being forgotten in the first place. And life is too short to have to judge in some rational manner the merits of any and all art works that could ever be brought to our attention.

[Rutradelusasa]

But what about the Cherubini Requiem ... ? Did anyone listen to the passage at the website which I refered to? Any impressions? Why is it so seldom performed?

about the recording, I found it a bit dead , I prefer other ones.
I really do love this requiem, the build-up and explosion of the confutatis always makes me shake.

[DavidO]

In case you don't know it I put an example on

http://www.esnips.com/web/candlelight

Please listen to this oh so heavenly and mystical part at 3:12 and to the following great fugue...!!

I'm totally unfamiliar with this work, but I'm listening to the copy you uploaded now. Call me crazy, but to me the treatment of the chorus is Beethovenian (although not the orchestration). I think I like this work well enough to seek out a CD of it -- any recording recommendations?

Further down, someone mentioned the Dona Nobis Pacem of the B Minor Mass, & I mentioned having found an interesting live performance of it on the Web, although I couldn't remember where. I still can't remember where, so I uploaded the actual RealPlayer file here:

http://download.yousendit.com/2D4FD7460754677A

Feel free to download & listen. I'd like to hear everyone's opinion of this performance. Admittedly, it's low-tech & not world-class professional, but I think it has a piercing innocence to it that makes me play it over & over.

Other important spiritual works to me:

• Beethoven's "Opferlied" Op. 121b
• Vaughan Williams's Third Symphony 1st mov't (the Pastoral)
• Vyacheslav Ovchinnikov's score to Tarkovsky's "Andrei Rublev"
• Debussy's "Martyr de St. Sebastien"

[Rutradelusasa]

any recording recommendations?

Spering or Toscanini.

[Peter]

I am sorry, I personally don't found access to Bach's spiritual music yet. Even the famous Matthew passion does not touch me.

Try this link (Erbarme dich from the Matthew passion) and tell me you are not moved!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHbOOe8n2gY

And Mache dich (also from the Matthew passion)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGj1xcPpIZM

[gprengel]

any recording recommendations?

I have a CD with a performance by Toscanni which I cannot recommend because of the bad technical quality. The other CD I have is both enjoyable and cheap:

http://www.amazon.com/Cherubini-Requ...6417389&sr=8-2

you will love it!

[gprengel]

Try this link (Erbarme dich from the Matthew passion) and tell me you are not moved!

Thank you Peter, I know these two pieces. They are nice, but as a whole this oratorium still doesn't move me. I once attended a live performance - it was so loooonnnng and boring. From Bach I love the piano works and some violin concerto movements but the cantatas and oratoriums .... I know that I am pretty much alone with this assessment but I can't help it. To me Handel is the man of sacred music in the Barock.