Sunday Afternoon at the Opera - Stanford: Mass Via Victrix 1914-1918: Zelenka: Missa Omnium Sanctorum

Sunday Afternoon at the Opera host Keith Brown writes:

Programming for the month of November commences on a sombre note. It was on November 11th that World War One ended in 1918. Several European composers wrote requiems for the war dead. The notable British composer, Sir Charles Villiers Stanford (1852-1924) wrote a setting of the Latin Mass as a thanksgiving for the cessation of hostilities, and as a celebratory ode for Allied victory. Mass Via Victrix 1914-1918 was published in vocal score in 1920, but only the "Gloria" section was ever sung in the composer's lifetime, and only in a reduced performance. In complete scoring for full orchestra, organ, chorus and and four vocal soloists, it was finally recorded in concert, the 27th of November, 2018, to mark the upcoming centenary of the Armistice. BBC Radio 3 broadcast the concert to the nation, the aircheck for which was picked up by the Lyrita record label of the UK for release in 2019 on a single silver disc. Adrian Partington conducts the BBC National Orchestra and Chorus of Wales. Stanford's At the Abbey Gate for baritone solo, chorus, and orchestra was first performed at the Royal Albert Hall in 1921 following the unveiling ceremony of the Cenotaph, the monument for the fallen soldiers in downtown London. The world premiere recordings of both of Stanford's works are now available to the public through Lyrita.

November First is a special day in the traditional Christian calendar: the Feast of All Saints. In observance of the holy day the composers of old were often commissioned to write festive Mass settings. The Bohemian composer, J. S. Bach's Catholic colleague, Johann Dismas Zelenka. (1679-1745) penned his Missa Omnium Sanctorum in 1741 for the Saxon Royal Court Chapel in Dresden. Zelenka played the bass viol in the renowned court orchestra there. Musicologists think that Bach wrote his Latin Mass in B Minor for possible performance in Dresden. Zelanka's 'Mass for All Saints" is in the same contrapuntal North German baroque style. It gets a perfect idiomatically baroque performance from the Milanese La Barocca period instrument players and chorus, joined by four vocal soloists. Ruben Jais directs them all. The Spanish Glossa label put Zelenka's Missa Omnium Sanctorum out in 2019 on a single compact disc.