RECORDINGS

LABEL: SPEKTRAL
CATALOG NUMBER: SRL4-07004
UPC NUMBER: 4260130380045
NUMBER OF DISCS: 2
RUNNING TIME: 2:24:08
YEAR RECORDED: 2006
CD RELEASE DATE: APRIL 20, 2007
CONDUCTOR: CHRISTOF ANDREAS SCHÄFER
ORCHESTRA: L'ARPA FESTANTE MUNICH
CHOIR: STUDENTKANTOREI CHAMBER CHOIR
SOPRANO: CONSTANZE BACKES
CONTRALTO: ULRIKE SCHNEIDER
TENOR: MARK CALVERT
BASS: PETER SCHÜLER

AUDIO SAMPLES HIGHLIGHTS OTHER RELEASES


DISC ONE

1. No.1 Symphony     3:03
2. No.2 Comfort ye, comfort ye my people (Tenore)    2:58
3. No.3 Ev'ry valley shall be exalted (Tenore)    3:25
4. No.4 And the glory, the glory of the Lord (Coro)    2:58
5. No.5 Thus saith the Lord, the Lord of Hosts (Basso)    1:25
6. No.6 But who may abide the day of His coming (Alto)    4:30
7. No.7 And He shall purify (Coro)    2:37
8. Behold, a virgin shall conceive (Alto)    0:24
9. No. 8 O thou that tellest good tidings to Zion (Alto)    3:54
10. O thou that tellest good tidings to Zion (Coro)    1:47
11. No.9 For behold, darkness shall cover the earth (Basso)    2:08
12. No.10 The people that walked in darkness shall cover the earth (Basso)    3:53
13. No.11 For unto us a child is born (Coro)    4:11
14. No.12 Pifa    2:50
15. There were shepherds abiding in the field (Soprano)    0:14
16. No.13 And lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them (Soprano)    0:22
17. And the angel said unto them (Soprano)    0:34
18. No.14 And suddenly there was with the angel (Soprano)    0:20
19. No.15 Glory to God in the highest (Coro)    1:55
20. No.16 Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion (Soprano)    4:19
21. Then shall the eyes of the blind be open'd (Alto)    0:26
22. No.17 He shall feed His flock like a shepherd (Alto e Soprano)    5:23
23. No.18 His yoke is easy, His burthen is light (Coro)    2:34
24. No.19 Behold the Lamb of God (Coro)    3:01
25. No.20 He was despised (Alto)    10:25
26. No.21 Surely, He hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows (Coro)    1:49
27. No.22 And with His stripes we are healed (Coro)    1:38
28. No.23 All we like sheep have gone astray (Coro)    3:55
 DISC TWO

1. No.24 All they that see Him, laugh Him to scorn (Tenore)    0:46
2. No.25 He trusted in God (Coro)    2:27
3. No.26 Thy rebuke hath broken His heart (Tenore)    1:48
4. No.27 Behold, and see if there be any sorrow (Tenore)    1:21
5. No.28 He was cut off out of the land of the living (Tenore)    0:16
6. No.29 But Thou didst not leave His soul in hell (Tenore)    2:04
7. No.30 Lift up your heads (Coro)    3:19
8. Unto which of the angels said He at any time (Tenore)    0:21
9. No.31 Let all the angels of God worship Him (Coro)    1:29
10. No.32 Thou art gone up on high (Alto)    3:18
11. No.33 The Lord gave the word (Coro)    1:18
12. No.34a How beautiful are the feet of them (Soprano)    2:10
13. No.35a Their sound is gone out into all lands (Coro)    1:20
14. No.36 Why do the nations so furiously rage together (Basso)    2:59
15. No.37 Let us break the bonds asunder (Coro)    1:49
16. He that dwelleth in heaven (Tenore)    0:13
17. No.38 Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron (Tenore)    2:04
18. No.39 Hallelujah (Coro)    4:03
19. No.40 I know that my Redeemer liveth (Soprano)    5:42
20. No.41 Since by man came death (Coro)    2:04
21. No.42 Behold, I tell you a mystery (Basso)    0:39
22. No.43 The trumpet shall sound, and the death shall be rais'd (Basso)    9:20
23. Than shall be brought to pass (Alto)    0:16
24. No.44 O death, where is thy sting? (Alto e Tenore)    1:08
25. No.45 But thanks be to God (Coro)    2:23
26. No.46 If God be for us who can be against us (Soprano)    5:08
27. No.47 Worthy is the Lamb, that was slain (Coro)    3:50
28. Amen. (Coro)    3:38
SITE RATING:  5/10
SITE REVIEW:  An English-language Messiah released by German label Spektral, this recording suffers from a shockingly mushy performance by the Studenkantorei Chamber Choir; good, but unspectacular soloists; excellent playing by L'arpa Festante Munich orchestra, and unimaginative , dull direction by conductor Christof Andreas Schäfer.  This is one of those Messiahs that is certainly competent by most standards, but resolutely refuses to stand out from the crowd, settling for slow, mundane tempos, attacks and cut-offs that are soft, and an overall laissez-faire attitude that made me wonder why anyone bothered recording it. More interesting to me is the fact that this is a German conductor, a German orchestra and choir, a German label, and yet rather than perform the much more popular (at least in Germany) Mozart arrangement in German, they opt to do this English language, rather traditional western version; I suspect that had they chosen the Mozart version, it would have turned out better; as it is, the English is rather slurred by their accents, and everyone sounds reigned in by the language barrier.  More damning is the performance by the choir, which is one of the weakest, most indifferent I've ever heard on a Messiah.  If Spektral had intended this to be marketed to English-speaking audiences, why isn't this recording available in CD format here in the States?  Instead, it's only readily available as a download - in order to get a "hard copy" of the album, it needs to be ordered from the Spektral website, but I suspect most need not bother, the generally lackluster performance and other detractions keep this Messiah from being a must-hear.

The Compleat Messiah All Content Copyright © 2015 Bret D. Wheadon
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