James Macmillan's Miserere is pretty good as well.Careful - he (Allegri's Miserere) didn't even write the good bit apparently!
James Macmillan's Miserere is pretty good as well.Careful - he (Allegri's Miserere) didn't even write the good bit apparently!
As regards the 2nd movement of the German Requiem...I totally get that.My chakras were once over excited by this piece. It was a performance at the RFH with Gatti conducting the RFO. In the second movement during the slow orchestral build up to the chorus' entry with 'Den allies Fleisch, es ist wie Gras', a tingling sensation started at the base of my spine, slowly travelled up my spine, over my head and slowly down to my toes. No - it wasn't 'that' type of experience, but it was the most visceral physiological response to a piece of music I've ever had.
Well there we are. Make of it what you will. Perhaps I should be arrested.
AgreedThe question only made sense to me with the word 'today' tacked on at the end. And that didn't really seem worth saying.
Reading Clive James today I came across: 'One of the characteristics of a work of art is to drive all the other works of art temporarily out of you head.'
Eureka!
At the moment it's Borodin's 2nd quartet, played by the Borodin Quartet on a Decca FFSS LP from c.1960. just glorious.
I heard Svetalov (deliberately I guessed) drain the blood out of Wagner. Is was quite a technical feat but he did it and it was very polished.There you have introduced the 'elephant in the room'. Unlike a poem or a painting there's at least one third party intermediary. I've heard a conductor (since deceased) in the RFH make an LvB symphony sound routine, even pedestrian. Converseley, I happened to be in the mood for a sonata the other day, selected Annie Fischer (thanks again, Todd) and nos. 21/30/32 and was gripped forthe next hour or so, all plans for the day shelved pro tem. Being retired helps, of course.