In 1887, John Stainer’s “meditation on the sacred passion of the Holy Redeemer”, otherwise known as The Crucifixion, was special for its substantive treatment of its subject in a non-liturgical work performable by “ordinary”–as opposed to cathedral–choirs and organists. It even involves the congregation in singing of familiar hymns at various points in the story. In style, the work actually is an oratorio, its Biblical texts describing the events preceding and during Christ’s crucifixion, told by two soloists–tenor and bass–and choir, with the organ serving as both orchestra and continuo (in the recitatives). The music is not difficult but it does bring the varied dramatic scenes to life with all the late-Romantic expressive accoutrements that today’s audiences either find preciously inspiring or–how shall we say it?–excruciatingly quaint. Yet, no matter your overall view, you’ve gotta love the work’s most famous and most-performed excerpt, the lovely chorus “God so loved the world”, a setting of the revered text that’s never been surpassed for poignancy and beauty. On the other hand, near the work’s beginning we have to endure the maddeningly repetitive cries “Fling wide the gates!” in the interminable chorus sung during the Processional to Calvary–and the tenor/bass duet “So Thou liftest Thy divine petition” ends up sounding more like Gilbert & Sullivan than an oratorio piece (not that there’s anything really wrong with that!).
This performance from 1978 holds up very well in this reincarnation on Sanctuary Classics’ Resonance imprint, presenting a big, resonant, full-bodied sound with the chorus fairly up-front and the organ booming and thundering just a bit too assertively at times. We can hear everything clearly; the soloists are good (Michael George can be irritatingly affected in his enunciation); and the chorus is solid in the big numbers and very heartfelt in the hymns. If you love this kind of thing, you’ll be interested in hearing this–there’s only one other recording available of the complete work, an equally respectable, more recent performance by the BBC Singers (and Michael George again) on Chandos. Finally–I’m still wondering what possessed the creators of this disc’s packaging. Besides the positively apologetic non-design on the outside (and the totally illegible type on the back), you literally need a magnifying glass to read the track listings on the inside, and it’s almost impossible to find or read the label name and catalog number. Were they afraid that someone might actually want to buy this? Atrocious.
