A Musical Victor Hugo
Now and again, by presenting to us a great work we have not heard before and are unlikely ever to hear "in the flesh," the radio more than com‘pensates for the insistent well-worn pops, and desiccated classics. Berlioz’s Requiem (Messe des Morts) — held me entranced during the whole of 1YC’s playing of the Passini Choir recording. The fantastic Berlioz, with his strange malformed genius, can be vulgar, cheap and theatrical; he lacks religious sense; he naively tinkers with the sacred texts he sets; he loves the big battalions and the bludgeoning row of grotesquely large orchestras, Yet in this extraordinary Requiem, a_ dolorous celebration of melancholy mortality, without faith or belief, there is a power, a vastness and gloomy solemnity which made a great impact on me, almost despite myself. I felt that here was the very centre of French Romanticism, but at the same time unmistakably Berlioz himself, uneven, almost megalomaniacally grandiose, quite unliturgical, yet marked with inexplicable genius — the musical Victor Hugo. For such an experience, I am almost prepared to tolerate the thrice-weekly performance of the Overture to The Bartered Bride.
J.C.
R.
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19540430.2.20.3
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 30, Issue 771, 30 April 1954, Page 10
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190A Musical Victor Hugo New Zealand Listener, Volume 30, Issue 771, 30 April 1954, Page 10
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