Louis Spohr‘s oratorio The Last Judgment is one of his most successful works and one of the most important contributions to the repertoire of the oratorio. The premiere on Good Friday 1826 was a huge success. It is based on the theologically most significant portions of the Revelations of John in the New Testament, which Friedrich Rochlitz compiled for the libretto. In collaboration with Rochlitz Spohr vividly portrayed in music the visions of death and eternity. The composition is suffused by a positive, comforting fundamental attitude of joyful anticipation.
The work is especially suitable for the end of the church year. It is captivating on account of its masterful instrumentation, excellent use of chromaticism, large-scale solo recitatives and accessible choral passages filled with heartfelt sensitivity on the one hand, and exciting drama on the other.
Spohr was a pivotal composer, sometimes too indebted to his predecessors, while his successors tended to improve upon his innovations. The Last Judgement contains passages reminiscent of Mozart’s Magic Flute and Beethoven’s Fidelio, while its brooding orchestration and muscular choral writing look forward to, yet are overshadowed by, Schumann and, most notably, Brahms. Changes in taste may have affected its reputation, since this is not so much a dramatisation of apocalyptic catastrophe as a meditation on the redemptive idea of “a new heaven and a new earth” after this world is swept away. The interwar generation must have found its majestic optimism hard to swallow.
0:00 Overture
Part I
7:21 I. Preis une Ehre ihm
13:21 II. Recitative - Steige Herauf
14:58 III. Heilig, heilig
16:27 IV. Recitative - Und siehe, ein Lamm, das war ver verwundert
18:33 V. Das Lamm, das erwürget ist
19:59 VI. Recitative - Und alle kreatur - Betet an
23:13 VII. Recitative - Und seihe, eine große Schar
26:16 VIII. Heil, der Erbarmer
29:07 IX. Sinfonia
Part II
36:45 X. Recitative - So spricht der Herr
41:41 XI. Duet - Ser mir nicht schrecklicht in der Not
46:19 XII. So ihr mich von ganzerm Herzen suchet
48:12 XIII. Recitative - Die Stunde des Gerichts
49:03 XIV. Gefallen ist Babylon
55:19 XV. Selig seind die Toten
57:55 XVI. Recitative - Sieh, einen neuen Himmel
59:51 XVII. Recitative and Quartet - Und siehe, ich komme baid
1:00:56 XVIII. Finale: Groß Und wunderbarlich sind deine Werke
Performers: [ Ссылка ]
