Customer Reviews

Schubert: Masses Nos. 2 & 6

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I am ashamed to admit that I do not listen to this recording as often as it deserves to be heard. If the Lord has ears to hear with, then Schubert can be assured a place in the highest echelons of Heaven for having written such music. His Kyrie in Mass No. 2 drips with lyrical beauty. The Sanctus will take your breath away with its forceful simplicity. The Agnus Dei is a prayer on par with Faure's Pie Jesu for sheer, pure beauty. Highlights of the Mass No. 6 include the grandiose, Beethoven-esque Gloria and the gentle Benedictus. Shaw is absolutely in his element directing the Atlanta Chorus through their lush phrases and delicate melodies. The balance between chorus and orchestra is precise and the excellent sound quality can be best described as clear & present. A great selection of Masses for your collection.

I love this CD. It is an exquisite rendition of Schubert's wonderful music. I am performing this with my choir, and have been looking for a different presentation to hear the contrasts in interpretation.

I highly recommend this beautiful audio CD to anyone who loves good classical music.

SCHUBERT, A MASTER OF THE ROMANTIC, CONDUCTED BY SHAW, A CONFIRMED PEDANTIC, MAKES A GREAT MARRIAGE IN THIS RECORDING.

Franz Schubert (1797-1828) was raised a Roman Catholic in Vienna, and as a clear-voiced choir boy and violinist, he became acquainted with the works of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven, who was his favorite composer.

Among Schubert's vocal works are many with religious texts, most intended for service use. The majority of these, including his first 5 Mass settings, were written for specific occasions and received performances soon after being completed, but this was not the case with his Sixth Mass, which lay unperformed until a year after his death.

In his settings of the mass, Schubert took Romantic liberties, omitting words, repeating words,or even entire paragraphs, thus treating the text not as unchangeable doctrine, but as a flexable libretto to be subservient to his artistic needs. His setting made significant omissions in the Gloria and Credo texts. Some sentences are omitted in all six of his masses, leading to speculation that he dissented from such teachings as the Church's divine authority.

The G major Mass was composed in 1815, and is simple and tuneful, direct and innocent in its idiom. He wrote it in 6 days; it is a small-scaled work accompanied by strings and organ.

The Mass in E-flat major is the product of that remarkable surge of new music that Schubert produced in his final year. Musically it has two aspects: it follows traditional practise in overall shape and construction. However, we encounter, in its harmonic language, Schubert, the Romantic ,using daring chromatic digressions and frankly pictorial writing with telling dramatic effect. This is basically a choral mass, and the soloists are used sparingly.

The performance of the soloists is excellent, and who but a Robert Shaw could bring out the best of the Chorus and Orchestra? Shaw was such a genius in the art of choral performance, but fortunately for us, he left much of his work behind on several recordings. While I enjoy both of these Masses, my preference still leans to the g major. probably because of its more traditional sound.

Of the four major composers of the Viennese Classical era (including Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven), it took Franz Schubert the longest for many of his major works in the symphonic and choral genres to achieve a significant foothold in the concert halls and on recordings. A master in the form of the art song, Schubert unfortunately rarely got any of his more ambitious works played during his short lifespan; and apart from his Fifth, Eighth, and Ninth symphonies, the much-beloved "Ave Maria", and the excellent incidental music he composed in 1823 for the admittedly stilted melodrama "Rosamunde", Schubert's other major works really started coming into their own with audiences during the early 1970s. From that point on, though the increased popularity of Schubert was nowhere near as noticed as the Mahler revival of the 1950s and 1960s, it has nevertheless paid dividends.

Such is the case with the two works featured here, the composer's second and sixth settings of the Latin Mass, with No. 2 having been composed in 1815, when the composer was only 18, and No. 6 having been finished in the months prior to his untimely death in 1828. The earlier Mass In G Major is virtually a chamber mass, scored for three voices, small choir, organ, and full string orchestra (though a later so-called "Klosterneuberg" version of the work found in the 1980s apparently added trumpets and timpani); while the later Mass, in E Flat Major, is closer in scope to Beethoven in orchestral and vocal concept. In both works, however, Schubert's stirring gift for melody is always apparent. And it also helps that both works receive superb performances from a total of eight different vocal soloists, two choruses (the Atlanta Symphony Chamber Chorus in No. 2; and the full A.S.O. Chorus in No. 6), and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, all under the direction of the man who was the orchestra's music director from 1967 to 1991, Robert Shaw. It is Shaw's reputation as America's premiere choral conductor that is at the heart of these Schubert performances, with the choruses at a world-class level; but the Atlanta Symphony itself is equally fine. This is a recording to be cherished by anyone with a love of sacred music in general, and the music of Franz Schubert in particular.

I purchased this CD as a tool in helping me with Mass No 2. My church choir is presenting this work in May and understood the recording with Robert Shaw was a good one. Even though I haven't listened all of the way through, I can say the music is crisp, clear and glorious.

Schubert: Masses Nos. 2 & 6 Absolute choral purity and diction make this another of Robert Shaw's exquisite recordings. Perfect in every way.

This is a superb disc. I highly recommend it to the lovers of classical music.

On the podium, Shaw could be measured to the point of seeming fussy; but that doesn't happen happen here. Indeed, this is one of the top entries in the choral canon he recorded for Telarc during the glorious autumn and winter of his career. These are poised, alert, gorgeously sung versions of true masterworks--one great; one small but nevertheless profound. The Mass in E-flat, the last of Schubert's choral Masses, is an absolute stunner that combines ringing counterpoint with some of the most heart-rending melodies of the entire sacred repertoire. The "Et incarnatus est" is (as befits Christianity's trinitarian consciousness) is a trio for a solo soprano and a pair of tenors. It is a lilting Viennese love song that might be the most fragrant statement of faith ever composed. What exquisite harmonies! Shaw's soloists are as good as his choir, which is to say they are state-of-the-art. There are some clinkers among Shaw's Telarc recordings (Carmina Burana, Mozart's Requiem, Mahler 8 for starters); but this is wonderful in every respect. Don't miss it!

I am using the recording to practice for presenting Schubert's mass No 6. It is very good and a great help.

This is THE recording of Mass # 2 to get!! # 6 is VERY nice as well. Over all a beautiful and unsurpassed recording.