Robin Johannsen, Timothey Fallon, Roxana Constantinescu, Michael Nagy, Festivalensemble Stuttgart, Helmuth Rilling - Sandstrom: Messiah (2010)

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Artist: Robin Johannsen, Timothey Fallon, Roxana Constantinescu, Michael Nagy, Festivalensemble Stuttgart, Helmuth Rilling
Title: Sandstrom: Messiah
Year Of Release: 2010
Label: Carus
Genre: Classical
Quality: FLAC (tracks)
Total Time: 01:29:54
Total Size: 342 MB
WebSite: Album Preview

Tracklist:

CD 1 - 00:36:07

Messiah, For 4 Soloists, Chorus & Orchestra -
Part 1 -
01. No. 1, Comfort Ye, My People - [06:10]
02. No. 2, Ev'ry Valley Shall Be Exalted - [02:41]
03. No. 3, And the Glory of the Lord - [01:07]
04. No. 4, Thus Saith the Lord - [02:23]
05. No. 5, But Who May Abide - [01:26]
06. No. 6, And He Shall Purify - [01:19]
07. No. 7, Behold, A Virgin Shall Conceive - [01:24]
08. No. 8, O Thou that Tellest Good Tidings to Sion - [02:04]
09. No. 9, For Behold, Darkness Shall Cover the Earth - [01:20]
10. No. 10, The People that Walked in Darkness - [01:51]
11. No. 11, For Unto Us a Child Is Born - [01:10]
12. No. 12, There Were Shepherds Abiding in the Field - [01:52]
13. No. 13, Glory to God in the Highest - [01:22]
14. No. 14, Rejoice Greatly, O Daughter of Sion - [01:50]
15. No. 15, Then Shall the Eyes of the Blind Shall Be Open'd - [01:55]
16. No. 16, He Shall Feed His Flock Like a Shepherd - [02:50]
17. No. 17, His Yoke is Easy - [03:23]

CD 2 - 00:54:14

Part 2 -
01. No. 18, Behold the Lamb of God - [01:41]
02. No. 19, He Was Despised and Rejected - [02:16]
03. No. 20, Surely He Hath Borne Our Griefs - [02:09]
04. No. 21, And With His Stripes We Are Healed - [01:31]
05. No. 22, All We, Like Sheep, Have Gone Astray - [02:11]
06. No. 23, All They that See Him - [00:40]
07. No. 24, He Trusted in God - [00:31]
08. No. 25, Thy Rebuke Hath Broken His Heart - [01:15]
09. No. 26, Behold, and See - [01:26]
10. No. 27, He Was Cut Off the Land - [00:32]
11. No. 28, But Thou Didst Not Leave His Soul - [00:28]
12. No. 29, Lift Up Your Heads, O Ye Gates - [01:56]
13. No. 30, Unto Which of the Angels - [00:47]
14. No. 31, Let All the Angels of God Worship Him - [01:16]
15. No. 32, Thou Art Gone Up on High - [01:46]
16. No. 33, The Lord Gave the Word - [01:05]
17. No. 34, How Beautiful Are the Feet of Them - [01:13]
18. No. 35, Their Sound is Gone Out - [01:28]
19. No. 36, Why Do the Nations - [02:02]
20. No. 37, Let Us Break Their Bonds - [00:45]
21. No. 38, He That Dwelleth in Heaven - [01:11]
22. No. 39, Thou Shalt Break Them - [01:01]
23. No. 40, Halleluja - [04:02]
24. No. 41, I Know That My Redeemer Liveth - [02:22]
25. No. 42, Since By Man Came Death - [02:36]
26. No. 43, Behold, I Tell You a Mystery - [01:33]
27. No. 44, The Trumpet Shall Sound - [01:39]
28. No. 45, Then Shall Be Brought to Pass - [01:39]
29. No. 46, O Death, Where Is Thy Sing? - [02:05]
30. No. 47, But Thanks Be to God - [02:01]
31. No. 48, If God Be For Us, Who Can Be Against Us? - [02:08]
32. No. 49, Worthy is the Lamb - [02:44]
33. No. 50, Amen - [02:15]

It might seem the height of hubris to take the text of one of the most iconic classical pieces ever written and use it to create an entirely new work, but who could refuse such a commission from the prestigious International Bach Academy, Stuttgart, and the Oregon Bach Festival? Swedish composer Sven-David Sandström (born 1942), a professor at Indiana University, Bloomington, is not known to general audiences, but he was one of the few (non-Eastern European) composers schooled in rigorous modernism who was devoting serious attention to religious music in the late 20th century. The piece certainly has to be considered on its own merits, apart from the masterpiece with which it happens to share a text. It's a curious, uneven work, which, despite the accessibility of its tonal language, seems more likely to inspire bemusement than affection. Perhaps in his zeal to avoid any reference to Handel, Sandström ignores or contradicts rather than illuminates the meaning of the texts. The piece gets off to a portentous, harmonically hazy start with a Comfort Ye that sounds more creepy than comforting, but otherwise Sandström sticks close to fairly traditional contemporary tonality in most movements. Minimalism is a powerful influence in some movements, such as "Every Valley" and "His Yoke Is Easy," with short phrases jerkily repeated in a style similar to what John Adams used, to comic effect, in Nixon in China. It couldn't have been the composer's intention, but the results sound flippant and sometimes just silly. He is also generous in the profusion of old-fashioned conventions like parallel thirds that as often as not sound trite and out of place. Under the leadership of Helmut Rilling, the chorus and orchestra of Festivalensemble Stuttgart perform wholeheartedly and expertly, and the soloists all do very well with the frequently florid and rhythmically complex vocal writing. The sound of Carus' live recording is clean, spacious, and balanced.

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Robin Johannsen, Timothey Fallon, Roxana Constantinescu, Michael Nagy, Festivalensemble Stuttgart, Helmuth Rilling - Sandstrom: Messiah (2010)

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