| Site review by Polly Nomial May 4, 2008
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Performance: Sonics: |
Written as a 3 part work (which may be performed independently), Magnum Mysterium is a curious blend of the avant garde and completely conventional church music. The participants are a speaker, a mixed chorus, 12 voices (of any persuasion) that also play bells, an organist, a wind ensemble of 8, a brass ensemble of 6, percussion, tape and most incongruently of all (to this listeners mind/ears) the audience that sings along with the on-stage performers.
All three parts are musically similar to the ear (although some intellectual arguments could be made to dispute this) despite the differing tales taken from the Bible for each section. Linked by interpolations from the speaker, each part blends a mix of oratory and chord clusters from the organ (spiced with choral dissonances and interjections from the other ensembles) before inviting the audience to participate with chorale singing that is completely at odds with the material that they precede.
The performance (taken from the première on 4 May 1980) is generally committed but there are noticeable lapses of ensemble - not only at the moments when the audience participates either. The recording (taken from the then Westdeutscher Rundfunk of Köln) has withstood the ravages of time but it is clearly not a state-of-the-art approach and the effect of the audience participation is diminished by presenting the work only in stereo. Beyond that obvious limitation and one can clearly identify the location of each ensemble (a photo from the performance confirms seating positions).
For Becker's fans only.
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Copyright © 2008 John Broggio and SA-CD.net
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