@bristolchoral
I am greatly looking forward to performing the Glagolitic Mass for the first time. I can’t recall its being done in the Bath/Bristol area in recent years, and in fact until I started to learn it I was unfamiliar with the work, with only a hazy idea of how it sounded. I’ve been remedying this by listening to it several times a week. Fortunately, the Glagolitic Mass can stand up to this; a weaker piece would pall on repeated listenings, and something like the War Requiem would be very taxing because of its emotional impact.
I have been listening to three performances on YouTube:
- Mackerras/Czech Philharmonic We had this recording on a Supraphon LP as well, which I have transferred to CD. It has the wonderful unreconstructed Central European brass, but I don’t like the tenor or bass soloist.
- Tennstedt/London Philharmonic This recording is OK. I am puzzled by the picture of the Northern Lights which illustrates it though, as the Lights are very rarely seen as far south as Central Europe!
- Mackerras/Danish National Radio SO and Chorus This is my favoured recording for learning purposes for two reasons:
- while the choir does not produce a totally pure Scandinavian/Baltic sound (nor should it), it has a clear tone which makes it easy to follow
- they appear to use the same edition as us, with the high B flat Osanna near the end of Svet
However, I don’t like beginning the work as well as ending with the Intrada; I prefer to start with the blaring brass.