Anyone else appreciate the grandeur and sublimity of this massive oratorio, which seems to cover the world; it begins with some very odd(?whole tone) chords representing death, and after a grim and prolonged, dramatic Part 1, progresses to the section including the famous "Judex' melody, (which, indeed, functions as a leitmotif throughout the latter part of the work); and then a seraphically calm redemption over death section, with many beautiful melodies, a massive choral climax and a not inconsiderable closing Fugue. Gounod's late oratorios have the reputation for being "saccharine" or "sentimental";I am never sure what those words really mean,and they are relativistic to each individual's perception/taste; to me it is sublime, moving and poignant. Has "Redemption" been recorded?("Mors et Vita " is Michel Plasson); I have 2 of the earlier liturgical works on Marco Polo, which I am starting to get to know
I have the Plasson recording in a huge (37 CDs!) of French Music (paid almost nothing) which attracted me for the sake of a conspicuous number of rarities (alongside a good number of duplications). I have appreciated Mors et Vita , but up to now heard it just once (the length is not indiffferent). Prompted by this thread I will return, also as recently I have enjoyed quite a lot the (admittedly rather different) Hyperion Cd dedicated to the Gounod late music for pedal piano and orchestra.
I'd love to hear REDEMPTION, which was one of the great pieces of the late Victorian choral repertoire. The great cornetist Herbert L. Clarke was engaged to play trumpet in a performance of it by the Toronto Philharmonic Society in the early 1880s when he was a very young man - at the time he was principally a violinist and violist - and he was positioned in the balcony of the concert hall. At the rehearsal (not performance, thank God) he made an utter mess of his part because he'd never seen a part he had to transpose before - it was for trumpets in D and he came in triumphantly reading in B flat. He got it straight for the performance, but he said in his memoirs he'd bever been so embarrassed in his life.