schubert mass no. 6 in e-flat major d. 950 rutracker

In the Kyrie, at a mobile tempo, he combines gravitas with a Schubertian lyrical ease, and later he manages the tempo fluctuations far more naturally. Hickox chooses broad tempi, balancing dignity and vitality, and building thrillingly to the climaxes.

At the worthy tempi prevalent 20 and more years ago, these could seem interminable, and were often cut. The least personal, and most problematic, sections of the Mass are the monumental set-piece fugues at the end of the Gloria and Credo, where Schubert ostentatiously displays his contrapuntal credentials, probably with an eye on an official church appointment. The apocalyptic Sanctus, with its daring harmonic shifts and heavenstorming crescendi, is a musical counterpart to Turner's molten canvases, while the Agnus Dei has a violent, contorted anguish unmatched in a setting of this text.

Long the Cinderella work of Schubert's miraculous final year, the E flat Mass is now acknowledged as a powerful masterpiece that mingles liturgical grandeur with the composer's own subjective Romanticism. The recording is dedicated to the memory of Francesca McManus, the manager of CM90 who sadly died at the end of November. The result is some of the most violent anguish encountered in a setting of the text. Its concern for splendour is most obvious in the huge set-piece fugues at the end of the Gloria and Credo but all the time liturgical tradition is coloured by an individual and sometimes unsettling chromaticism, possibly evoking the personal pain he was suffering, not only physically but also the anguish of questioning his faith. Today, the Mass in E Flat is increasingly acknowledged as an individual masterpiece powerful and disquieting, more monumental than the fifth, but likewise seeking to reconcile liturgical grandeur with Schubert’s own subjective romantic feeling, whilst still influenced by Haydn, Beethoven and Bach.

Much more than his previous efforts in the genre, it is a choral mass, relegating the vocal soloists to three brief episodes to allow for large chorus passages, and provides an extremely active role for the orchestra. It was premiered posthumously, on October 4, 1829, under the direction of his brother,įerdinand. Schubert’s final mass and most ambitious setting was composed during the summer of 1828, only months before his death.

Schubert mass no. 6 in e-flat major d. 950 rutracker