January is always a quiet month for performance (although I have one new venture I’ll write about fairly soon) so time to write some more general posts I’ve been saving up for a while.
Singing Mahler 2 near the end of 2017 completed for me what I think of as the canon of generally acknowledged ‘standard’ large choral works. [‘Large’ in the sense of performance time, also that they are works which can be performed by a largish choir, even if they were not written for one.] I now feel I can form an informed view on which are my favourites – the ones that I feel really excited about when I am asked to sing them – because they’re unlikely to be supplanted by anything I’ve never sung. I selected a ‘top 10’ and here they are, alphabetically by composer:
- Bach, St Matthew Passion
- Bach, St John Passion
- Bach, Mass in B minor
- Beethoven, Missa Solemnis
- Berlioz, Grande Messe des Morts
- Elgar, The Dream of Gerontius
- Mahler, Eighth Symphony
- Mozart, Requiem
- Rachmaninov, Vespers
- Verdi, Requiem
I’m pleased by the range of nationalities and traditions represented here. You might ask ‘Where is Messiah?’, and my answer would be ‘Probably at no. 11’. But I can’t put my hand on my heart and say I prefer it to any of the ten on my list. Others which just missed the cut are Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610 and Brahms’ German Requiem.
Obviously no two singers will agree on this sort of list. If you want to know what I like about these pieces, you may get some idea from reading my accounts of performances of them here. I have sung all of them within the lifetime of the blog, with the exception of Mozart’s Requiem, which I performed just before I started it and which I shall sing again in March.