Franz Liszt’s Via Crucis is hardly a concert-hall or even a recording staple but its deeply felt religious passions and adventurous harmonies make it an important part of the composer’s vast output. Textures are spare and tempos are slow enough to induce soporific side effects in some listeners (not this one, who admits to finding the work endlessly fascinating). Instrumental interludes (here on organ, though Liszt arranged the work for piano as well) enhance the pictorial effect of the prelude and 14 Stations of the Cross, and the drama is all the more telling for the music’s restraint. Texts are in Latin, with Bach-like German chorales interspersed. The Corydon Singers are superb, their numbers seemingly expanded by the church acoustic. The brief vocal solos and small ensemble singing are uniformly excellent, with special notice due bass Nicholas Warden for his breath control in Pilate’s brief interjection in Station One.
Good as Best’s Via Crucis is, there’s stiff competition at a fraction of the price from Diego Fasoli’s equally well recorded version on Naxos. His Swiss Radio Choir sings with an edge that escapes the British group and thereby enhances the drama. In addition, Fasoli’s piano accompaniment gives a more vibrant character to the solo interludes than is possible with the thick-sounding organ. The Naxos performance is slightly swifter too, intensifying the drama without compromising the devotional aspect of the piece. Fasoli’s fillers are four short works, while Best gives us the more substantial Missa for mixed choir and organ. Compared to its discmate, the Missa is on a lesser level of originality though well worth hearing for its melodic freshness and masterful handling of the chorus. I retain a perverse admiration for Reinbert de Leeuw’s mid-1980s Philips recording with the Netherlands Chamber Choir, an excruciatingly slow performance (49’29” versus 38’57” for Best and 35’48” for Fasoli) that nonetheless successfully conveys the strangeness of Liszt’s harmonies and the modernity of the score.
