Listeners who love the sound of a large male-voice choir at its most effusive, singing some of the most gloriously overwrought, texturally dense, harmonically extravagant music ever conceived for men’s chorus, recorded in a brassy acoustic enhanced by Liszt’s scoring for a sizable contingent of brass and wind instruments, will be thrilled. This kind of hyper-dynamic choral music–and singing to match–takes singers with boundless energy who also can maintain ensemble balances and accurate pitch over stretches of long minutes. The last time I heard this chorus (another disc of Liszt pieces–type Q2941 in Search Reviews), I was not impressed with either of these crucial aspects of its performance. Here at least, ensemble is very solid and tuning is mostly very fine.
Beginning with the chorus Licht! mehr Licht! (Light! more light!), which Liszt wrote as part of the centenary celebrations of Goethe’s birth (the title comes from what supposedly were the poet’s last words), we’re treated to 44 minutes of the sort of grandiose, theme-centric, harmonically schizophrenic music that characterizes most of this composer’s works for chorus–music that can either dazzle with its dynamic opulence or repulse with its more garish dramatic qualities. Again–those who appreciate and enjoy this sort of thing know who they are and will want to investigate these rarely heard pieces. In fact, according to the notes, four of the five works on this program are recording premieres. The recording level is unusually high (be prepared to turn down your volume from its normal setting) but within that context, balances are fair and voices are clear if a bit hard-edged in the loudest sections.
