Les Beatitudes

Franck (Artist), Montague (Artist), Kallisch (Artist), Danz (Artist), Rilling (Artist) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (November 1, 1995)
• Number of Discs: 2
• Label: Hanssler Classics
• ASIN: B000003JT0
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #764,582 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

Disc: 1

1. Les béatitudes, oratorio for soloists, chorus & orchestra, M. 53: Prologue

2. Les béatitudes, oratorio for soloists, chorus & orchestra, M. 53: First beatitude: Blessed are the poor in spirit...

3. Les béatitudes, oratorio for soloists, chorus & orchestra, M. 53: Second beatitude: Blessed are the meek...

4. Les béatitudes, oratorio for soloists, chorus & orchestra, M. 53: Third beatitude: Blessed are those who mourn...

5. Les béatitudes, oratorio for soloists, chorus & orchestra, M. 53: Fourth beatitude: Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for right

Disc: 2

1. Les béatitudes, oratorio for soloists, chorus & orchestra, M. 53: Fifth beatitude: Blessed are the merciful...

2. Les béatitudes, oratorio for soloists, chorus & orchestra, M. 53: Sixth beatitude: Blessed are the pure in heart...

3. Les béatitudes, oratorio for soloists, chorus & orchestra, M. 53: Seventh beatitude: Blessed are the peacemakers...

4. Les béatitudes, oratorio for soloists, chorus & orchestra, M. 53: Eighth beatitude: Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteou

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Stupendous!, February 17, 2005

By 

Ryan Kouroukis "In 1882 Richard Wagner said: ... - See all my reviews

This review is from: Les Beatitudes (Audio CD)

This is a live recording from Stuttgart 1990. It is a solid gold performance in excellent digital sound.

This Masterpiece should be known by every serious lover of Choral music. It will raise you to the heights!

I'd like to mention that this has been re-released on Hanssler Classics with a different cover and full libretto/translation etc., as well it has also been re-released on Brilliant Classics for just over 10 bucks but with only a French text given, no English translation. Great if you understand French though!

It's a tough toss up, the Hanssler or the Brilliant. So it's up to you what you want to sacrifice...the libretto or your pocket!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Franck's sprawling, uneven "Les Beatitudes", June 21, 2011

By 

jt52 "jt52" (New Jersey) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Les Beatitudes (Audio CD)

I am probably one of the few people who actually own two recordings of Franck's 1879 oratorio "Les Beatitudes." The set conducted by Armin Jordan (Erato) is clearly preferable to the Stuttgart recording by Helmut Rilling (Hannsler) in all respects. Most importantly, Jordan's interpretation is far better realized than Rilling: more musical, effectively paced, easier to understand. Jordan's soloists are generally better than the ones in the Rilling, although they are a bit old-fashioned. The best known of the singers in the Rilling set, Gilles Cachemaille, sings the role of Jesus and is excellent, but others are not so successful, such as the sopranos (I can't tell which of the mezzos was singing what so I won't name names), who show pretty significant pitch problems and a Satan, John Cheek, with an abrasive voice. Finally, the sonic engineering in the Jordan is far superior to the Rilling, which is a harsh-sounding example of digital. I'm usually understanding of different opinions about music and recordings, but the difference in quality between the two sets is night-and-day and it is beyond me how a very flawed set like the Rilling qualifies for 5 star ratings under any criteria.

The story of "Les Beatitudes" and Franck's later compositional career is one of the more remarkable I know. Franck struggled with the work for 10 years, finally completing it in 1879 at the age of 57. The premiere in 1879 was, unsurprisingly, a failure and the work was not performed again until after Franck died. None of Franck's pieces up to the Beatitudes has entered the repertory and he was not famous at this time besides being a very good organist at one of the fashionable Parisian churches. So, as a composer, Franck was well into middle age, had just been handed a big set-back with the failure of his magnum opus and had no prior history of excelling at writing music. Most would have given up. Instead, Franck followed up by writing a group of excellent and now famous works in his 60s - terrific music like the D-minor Symphony, the Violin Sonata, the Symphonic Variations and the beautiful symphonic poem "Psyche" - which nothing in his background has indicated he could produce. It's a largely unknown but inspirational triumph over the odds. And it helps that Franck, unlike many artists, appears to have been a very nice man.

As to the composition itself, I find "Les beatitudes" to be a sprawling, overlong and uneven work. I think if Franck had edited down the work to the Prologue and the 1st, 3rd and 4th beatitudes, we would have a first-rate and major example of French sacred music of significant length (45 minutes or so). The other sections are much less interesting and make the work taxing for even the most dedicated listener. (This by the way is almost exactly what Debussy said about the oratorio.) The piece ends with a drawn-out finale that is about as long as the choral finale of Beethoven's 9th but without much that is gripping or attractive. Franck is generally unable to build momentum in the last half of the work, making for static music, something that is particularly apparent in the Rilling disc. In contrast, Armin Jordan makes the opening Beatitude and the funeral march in the third as vivid and forward moving.

This work is for French or choral music cognoscenti only. My recommendation is to buy the Armin Jordan and to concentrate on the first disc only.