Sunday Afternoon at the Opera - Pfitzner: Palestrina

Sunday Afternoon at the Opera host Keith Brown writes:

Ash Wednesday fell early this year, on February 10th. From that date onward up to Easter Sunday is the penitential period known as Lent in the traditional Christian calendar. In old Catholic Europe the opera houses closed for the duration. Instead of opera, sacred oratorio was performed without theatrical staging. I often feature oratorios and sacred choral works on the Sundays in Lent. But why not also program an opera about the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church?

The German composer, Hans Pfitzner (1869-1949), was an almost exact contemporary of Richard Strauss. Pfitzner is known today for only one opera Palestrina (1917). Although his musical style is more conservative than that of Strauss, Pfitzner's Palestrina is a most extraordinary composition. No opera calls for so many solo men's voices, especially in the lower register. The story concerns the legend about the famous sixteenth century composer of music for the Roman Catholic Church; how the heavenly power of Palestrina's music succeeded in rising above the political infighting at the Council of Trent.

Plainchant and Renaissance polyphony color the score. It all blends well into Pfitzner's general post-Wagnerian style. Many illustrious basses and baritones took part in the 1973 recording of Palestrina for Deutsche Grammophon, with Rafael Kubelik leading the Bavarian Radio Symphony. That old DGG boxed set of L's is to be found in our WWUH classical music record library. I drew upon it three times for broadcast in 1985, 1994 and 2013.

Our station has recently acquired a 2015 CD reissue through the Dutch label Brilliant Classics of a recording of Palestrina originally released through the German Edel record company in 1990. Edel offered a 1986 concert production of the opera undertaken at the Schauspielhaus in Berlin. Othmar Suitner directed the Staatskapelle Berlin orchestra and the Chorus of the Deutsche Staatsoper of Berlin. Starring as the composer Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina is the distinguished German tenor Peter Schreier.