In 1837 “Des Heilands letzte Stunden” enjoyed a successful British premiere. Numerous performances followed until the end of the century and the oratorio becomes a staple of musical life on the British Isles.
A musical memorial for peace and humanity: Casals was so impressed by the power of the verses that he immediately began setting the poem to music. With this background in mind, it is easy to understand why Alavedra’s “Poema del Pessebre” goes far beyond a jubilant and joyful Christmas message.
Carus editor Barbara Mohn explores Carissimi’s and Handel’s musical settings of the Old Testament story of Jephthah and his daughter.
Simon Carrington examines how Joseph Haydn brings to life texts from Genesis, Psalms and Milton’s Paradise Lost in his inspired oratorio, The Creation.
Ton Koopman describes his personal experiences of performing Handel’s groundbreaking and richly expressive “Messiah” in CARUS Highlights.
Simon Halsey writes in CARUS Highlights about Edward Elgar’s “The Dream of Gerontius” – a masterpiece that deserves more attention.
Due to the limited sheet music for the wind quintet, Joachim Linckelmann began arranging great choral works for smaller scorings while he was still a student. Today he is responsible for most of the published arrangements in our category “Great choral works in small scorings”.
In the CARUS Highlights, Frieder Bernius writes on Mendelssohn’s “Elijah”, one of the most popular oratorios of all.
César Franck regarded his oratorio “Les béatitudes” as his most important work. The first performance of the version with piano accompaniment was given in Franck’s private apartment. But the “real” premiere of the orchestral version with over 250 performers took place only after the composer’s death in 1891 in Dijon. It was an overwhelming success, as was the Paris premiere in March 1893.
It is rather unusual for a composer to publish his or her own work in three different versions. But that is exactly what Joseph Haydn did with his setting of Die Sieben letzten Worte unseres Erlösers am Kreuze (The Seven Last Words): The work exists in the original version for orchestra, then in an arrangement for string quartet, and – with the addition of voices and modified orchestration – in oratorio form. It would certainly not be wrong to interpret these three arrangements as a sign of the personal pride Haydn took in his composition.
