Sunday Afternoon at the Opera - Bloch: Avodath Hakodesh; Foss: Song of Songs; Ben-Haim: Sweet Psalmist of Israel

Sunday Afternoon at the Opera host Keith Brown writes:

The penitential season of Lent begins this year on February 26th--"Ash Wednesday" in the traditional Christian calendar. Across much of Europe in the olden days, especially in Catholic countries, the opera houses were closed until Easter. I observe that custom in presenting, over the upcoming Lenten Sundays, liturgical or religious music for the human voice drawn from the broad spectrum of the Judeo-Christian heritage.

On this first Sunday in Lent I focus on the Judaic heritage with the broadcast of Ernest Bloch's Avodath Hakodesh or "Sacred Service" (1930-33) for baritone solo, mixed chorus and large orchestra. The baritone takes the role of cantor in Bloch's oratorio-style rendering of the Hebrew liturgical texts. Robert Merrill is the cantorial baritone heard in an historic recording of the "Sacred Service" taped in 1960 with Leonard Bernstein directing the New York Philharmonic, the Choir of the Metropolitan Synagogue, and the Choir of the Community Church of New York.

Sony Classical came out with a series of jewel-case CD sets of their enormous audiotape holdings documenting Bernstein's recorded legacy as a conductor. The Bloch "Sacred Service" together with Bernstein's interpretations of the Song of Songs by Lucas Foss and Sweet Psalmist of Israel by Paul Ben-Haim are contained in issue number eighteen in the series. I last gave this same program of choral works led by Bernstein on Sunday, April 12, 2009.