I firmly believe that were it not for its great length, Franz Liszt’s glorious oratorio Christus would be considered one of the seminal romantic works of the 1800s, and played often. It has everything—great choral sections, beautiful melodies, exciting and passionate sequences, religious fervor, and delicate, chamber-like passages for soloists and instruments. The texts, all taken from either the bible or the texts of the Roman Catholic Church, are skillfully woven into a tapestry of magnificent proportions, and I have yet to hear this three-hour behemoth and feel like it took anywhere near that amount of time to complete. It does not seem stretched or dull in the least.
But for all its felicities the work has only—ready for this?—four complete recordings in the catalogue! This is quite unbelievable. I keep hoping that my local Atlanta forces may take it on one day, but it is not as if the existing recordings are substandard—far from it. You can skip the Dorati on Hungaroton—at around $55 this older recording is way too expensive. James Conlon’s version has now been released on Apex for a modest twenty bucks and change. Best of all, Helmuth Rilling’s incredibly affective Stuttgart recording is still available, and at the best price of all. Don’t get the original release on Hanssler Classics (as I did) which still sells for $60, but opt instead for the new CD reissue on Brilliant Classics for a pittance of sixteen dollars. This is a great recording, and sounds every inch such, with the incomparable Rilling forces giving us a demonstration disc of super quality.
Liszt of course surprised everyone when he decided to take minor orders in the Catholic Church in 1865 at the age of 54. What most of his groupies at the time did not know is that he struggled with a religious vocation since the age of 16, and that the life he lived as a virtuoso of the age was one essentially forced upon him by his father. Liszt never gave up the contemplation of religion, art, and their admixture at any time during his life, and religious pieces are continually being composed over the years. This last great piece dealing with the life of Christ must surely be recognized as one of his greatest, if not the greatest work he composed.
This is the first time the work has ever appeared on SACD, and it is a fine one. The surround sound is nicely spread, with great care being taken to distribute certain musical passages to discreet speakers, and not just a dividing up of the sound spectrum to all five channels. The choral work, while not as demonstrably energetic as Rilling, is quite effective, the relatively young choir (formed in 1990) displaying a firm grasp of Liszt’s many different lines without sounding overly-sentimental. The orchestral work is wonderful, and the soloists are all nicely controlled and expressive. I could not give up Rilling, whom I believe still owns this work, but these forces on MDG come very close, and the advantage of Super Audio surround is palpable. I want both. (But please, once again MDG, if you are selling a work with texts to an English audience, you must provide the translations into that language. Especially for a work as involved chorally as this one, translations are imperative, and not just into German.)
— Steven Ritter
[This is one of many “2+2+2” releases from MD&G mostly on SACD. They feel that for music in surround the center and subwoofer channels are not important, and instead use those two channels for left and right height mics/speakers high above the front left and right speakers. The signals are compatible in standard 5.1 playback. We will shortly be featuring some feature review articles covering the 2+2+2 system and most of the discs using this alternative approach – which works well but takes some effort to set up…Ed.]
