Saturday 23 May 2009

Totus Tuus

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3qOBQ1ZkQM

Used not to like Gorecki too much. Heard his Harpsichord Concerto as a student and lumped him in the sub Arvo Part minimalist slot, then heard this.... and changed my mind whilst the first chord was sounding. Some music doesn't wait to work its magic.

You get a hint of just how highly charged the first performance must have been.

I think with a little tinkering it would be performable by a church choir, a little discreet doubling here and there. It's just too long to be put in a Mass.

PS If you don't like the audience noise, there's another recording with Harry Christophers and The Sixteen.

2 comments:

Jane said...

Thanks Leutgeb:

Yes, yes, yes and yes.

I may be talking out of the back of my 'Locus Iste', but am I wrong to detect the influence of the Bruckner choral texture here? Never thought about it before.

Do tell any relevant connection that you know. All i know is that G was born 37 years after B's death and that I love singing B.!

What did you think of MacMillan's new pieces for the ++ Nichols inaugural Mass? I thought they were suitably splendid and rather liked the Mawby Ave Verum. Amazing what 40 years can sometimes do to soften the edges of ones's musical prejudices. However I don't think another 40 would convert me to the atonals, and I thank God we weren't subjected to them. Had we been in Notre Dame, Paris, we may have had to pay homage to the almighty Olivier M. Sorry, if I'm showing my 'untrained ear', as it was once described to me by a CBSO violist half my age, and newly in the thrall of Simon Rattle.

All best,
J

leutgeb said...

Hadn't thought of that but yes, it does have a certain sound of Buckner. Never studied Gorecki.

*Cough* Haven't listened to the new MacMillan yet or the Mawby.

I like Messiaen, though I have that listening to the whole of one of his big pieces is a bit of a marathon.

The more music I listen to and play, the less I can be bothered with anything atonal. I made the effort as a student and no great revelations to report. Your untrained ear should bask in tonality. The only contemporary composers that anyone likes are the one who write tunes. Strangely they tend to be Christians. The no hope atheists are the ones writing the squeeky door stuff. A sweeping generalisation, maybe, but check it out. MAcMillan, Part, Gorecki... won't mention Taverner on account of that piece at Westminster Cathedral.