Apart from Mendelssohn's Elijah and Paulus, Brahms' German Requiem, and Beethoven's Missa Solemnis, the undisputed champ among nineteenth century oratorios is Franz Liszt's gigantic Christus. Composed in just four years between 1859 and 1863 on an unwieldy libretto by Princess Carolyne von Sayn-Wittgenstein, Christus may have been intended as Liszt's answer to Handel's Messiah, and at least in length -- three hours -- it is certainly a comparable effort. Christus, like nearly all of Liszt's music that does not involve the ...
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Apart from Mendelssohn's Elijah and Paulus, Brahms' German Requiem, and Beethoven's Missa Solemnis, the undisputed champ among nineteenth century oratorios is Franz Liszt's gigantic Christus. Composed in just four years between 1859 and 1863 on an unwieldy libretto by Princess Carolyne von Sayn-Wittgenstein, Christus may have been intended as Liszt's answer to Handel's Messiah, and at least in length -- three hours -- it is certainly a comparable effort. Christus, like nearly all of Liszt's music that does not involve the piano, has never caught on in any measure comparable to the works of Mendelssohn, Beethoven, Brahms, or Handel mentioned above. Nevertheless, Christus is occasionally revived, and it should be, because Liszt put some of the very best of himself into this composition. While Princess Sayn-Wittgenstein's text may be ponderous, the music never is -- the orchestration is far more assured and accomplished than in either of Liszt's symphonies, and the choral writing is exquisite. Liszt wrote...
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