Francis Poulenc - Stabat Mater

Even though my favourite choral works tend to be requiems, the many Stabat Maters in the history of classical music make for quite an impressive list. Palestrina, Pergolesi, Rossini, Pärt, Dvorak, Verdi, Szymanowski and many others composed a version of this hymn. But it is Francis Poulenc's Stabat Mater that I've been listening to endlessly for the past few days, it is an astonishing piece of music. 

Francis Poulenc - Stabat Mater (playlist of the complete piece)

Performed by Orchestre de la Cité, Choeur Régional Vittoria d'Ile-de-France, soprano Danielle Borst, cond. Michel Piquemal

Francis Poulenc (1899-1963) was a French composer. He was a member of the famous Les Six, a group of 6 composers working in Paris (other members were Arthur Honegger, Darius Milhaud, Georges Auric, Louis Dury and Germaine Tailleferre) and composed many works, including four ballets, three operas (incl the AMAZING Dialogues des Carmélites), five concertos and a whole lots of chamber and piano music. One of the most interesting things about his musical output is that a lot of his pieces are humorous and energetic, he also wrote a lot of moving liturgical (choral) music. This Stabat Mater is one of them, others are the Litanies à la Vièrge Noire, the Gloria and Quatre petites prières de Saint François d'Assise and the Mass.

Poulenc composed the Stabat Mater in 1950, after the death of his good friend Christian Bérard. He briefly considered writing a requiem, but after a visit to Rocamadour, he considered the setting of the Stabat Mater more appropriate. The text of the Stabat Mater is a medieval hymn, and tells of the suffering of Mary as she sees Jesus dying on the cross. Poulenc's piece is divided into 12 different sections, each of them noticeably different in tempo, rhythm and orchestration. The solo soprano only appears in three of the movements, 'Vidit suum', 'Fac ut portem' and 'Quando corpus', the rest of the movements are performed by the chorus and orchestra. As usual, my favourite movements are some of the louder ones, in particular movement 5 'Quis est homo' and 11 'Inflammatus et accensus' but you should really listen to the whole piece (it's only about 30 mins long).

Dmitri Shostakovich - The Execution of Stepan Razin

I actually have a favourite piece of music. My all-time, absolute, undisputed favourite piece of music. Unsusprisingly it's a Shostakovich piece, but it's one that's not heard nearly as often as it should be: The Execution of Stepan Razin. It's a cantata for bass soloist, male and female chorus and orchestra. It's one of those works that I keep going back to, it doesn't matter what kind of mood I'm in or even if I'm keen on listening to music at that moment: I will always love it. There's probably quite a big risk with presenting a piece as your all-time favourite, expectations will be high and I'll probably be slightly offended when people don't like it (though this is always the case with Shostakovich pieces, I can't help it!), but I think it's important to emphasize just quite how much this work means to me. I think it might very well be the most-listened-to piece of music in my entire life.

In a way, it's surprisingly simple for a Shostakovich piece. It's not *that* loud, it has quite basic rhythms and beautiful but understated melodies. But it's just so incredibly good, especially the vocal lines, for both the bass and the chorus and it does have a few wonderfully spastic moments in the music that always put a smile on my face. The story tells of Stepan Razin, a Cossack leader in the 17th century. He led an army of peasants against the Tsar and captured a few cities before being defeated and eventually executed in Moscow. The particular words Shostakovich uses are a poem by Yevgeni Yevtushenko, who we also know from, among others, his beautiful Babi Yar which Shostakovich used in his 13th Symphony.


Dmitri Shostakovich - The Execution of Stepan Razin (composed in 1964)
Performed by the Seattle Symphony, Seattle Symphony Chorale, cond. Gerard Schwarz and bass Charles Robert Austin (my favourite recording is the world premier recording of Kondrashin with Gromadsky, which is also on youtube but that one's cut into bits and also the sound quality of this one is a tiny bit better. But if you're interested in getting the work, get the Kondrashin LP!).

The work lasts around 28 minutes (depending on the recording) and I really would recommend you listen to its entirety. My favourite part is after about 20 minutes, when the entire chorus sings "Not for nothing! Not for nothing!" (Nye zazrya!), it gets me every single time. Because the work very clearly tells a story, I will post the words here in English, with a little note saying who's singing, so that you can keep track while listening (when it's a soloist and chorus the italics specify when it's just the chorus singing):

Arnold Schoenberg - Gurrelieder

As a rule I like my music loud (surprise, surprise). What I like to be especially loud are choral and vocal works. Although beautiful subdued choral works can be lovely too (like the heartbreaking Rothko Chapel by Morton Feldman), I find it much more exhilirating when there's just lots of noise. A little while ago my dad bought a CD of Arnold Schoenberg's Gurrelieder and even though I have a bit of an ambiguous relationship with Schoenberg's music I have to say that this piece is exactly my cup of tea. Here's why:

Arnold Schoenberg - Gurrelieder Part I: 4 Ross! Mein Ross!
 

Part I: 12 Tauben von Gurre!


Part II: Herrgott, weisst du, was du tatest


Part III: 3 Gegrüsst, o König

All these recordings are conducted by Riccardo Chailly with the Radio Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Siegfried Jerusalem, Susan Dunn, Brigitte Fassbaender, Hermann Becht, Peter Haage, Hans Hotter and the Chor der St. Hedwigs-Kathedrale Berlin. I prefer Esa-Pekka Salonen's recent recording with the Philharmonia because that one's EXTRA-LOUD but this will do just fine.

Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951) was an Austrian/American composer. He is perhaps most well-known for his twelve-tone technique and atonal works. He wrote all sorts of weird things I can't wrap my head around but also some other wonderful pieces like Pierrot Lunaire and some of his chamber music. He seems to have been one of those composers that spent just as much time thinking about the structure of his music as he did composing it (though this could just be my interpretation). He was ridiculously influential though and influenced composers like Alban Berg (who I love), Alexander Zemlinsky, Milton Babbitt, Pierre Boulez and of course Anton Webern. If I had my copy of Alex Ross's The Rest is Noise with me I'm sure I could come up with some more interesting information, but that will have to wait till next time I'm afraid.

Gurrelieder is an absolutely massive work (probably most accurately called a cantata) for five soloists, a chorus, a narrator and orchestra. It is based around poems by Jens Peter Jacobsen (translated to German by Robert Franz Arnold). The story tells of two lovers, Waldermar and Tove. Waldemar was a king in love with his mistress Tove but Helvig the queen jealously murdered Tove. The distraught Waldemar somehow brings his dead soldiers back to life (rising of the dead always makes for good music, doesn't it?) and then they go riding around scaring everyone silly at night, until the sun rises again. The entire text can be read here (with an English translation). The composing-process of this piece was very interesting and complex. Schoenberg started writing it in 1900, intending it to be a small-ish piece and worked on it until 1903, although by this time it had taken on its more massive scale. In 1910 he returned to it, and by this time he had already written a bunch of atonal works (like the Five Pieces for Orchestra) but the Gurrelieder remain far from being atonal. Apparently he was influenced by both Mahler and Wagner in the writing of this piece, which is definitely not a surprise when you're listening.

Nico Muhly - A Good Understanding

Remember how I said I usually don't like organs? Well, apart from all the requiems there are a few more exceptions, and one of the most exciting ones is this amaaaaaazing choral piece by Nico Muhly:
 

Nico Muhly - A Good Understanding

Nico Muhly (1981-) is a much-talked-about young American composer. He's probably most well-known for writing the soundtrack to The Reader and his work with several pop artists, like Björk, CocoRosie, Antony and the Johnsons and Jónsi (he also performs quite often with Finnish violinist Pekka Kuusisto who I love). As a child he sang in a chorus, which has probably enabled him to write so many amazing choral works (his orchestral works aren't half-bad either). This summer his opera, Two Boys, premiered in London. This is what Muhly himself says about A Good Understanding:

"A Good Understanding is a celebratory, excited work originally written for adult voices with the addition of children’s voices at the end. The piece unfolds episodically, short choral phrases alternating with longer interludes from the organ and the percussion. The first half of the text is typical psaltry praise-making: outlining agreements, explaining the rules; the music is, accordingly, severe but practical. The second half of the text begins, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom: a good understanding have all they that do his commandments”. I find the idea of “a good understanding” to be an especially exciting reward for following the rules; the trebles sing pulsed syllables and long descants to celebrate the covenant while the choir sings a lilting, repetitive refrain."

I hope you all love this as much as I do.