Word: chorused
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1950-1959
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Schubert: The Death of Lazarus (soloists, the NDR Chorus and the Philharmonia Orchestra of Hamburg. Arthur Winograd conducting; M-G-M). A fine first recording of Schubert's fragmentary oratorio based on the Biblical account of the dead brother of Mary and Martha. Schubert started the work in 1820 when he was 23, abandoned it after barely starting Part II to work on The Magic Harp. Schubert's hushed, haunting melancholy shimmers in this moving performance, illuminated by the powerful NDR Chorus and the rich singing of Soprano Barbara Troxell fas Mary...
Tchaikovsky: Eugene Onegin (soloists, chorus and orchestra of the Bolshoi Theater; Westminster, 3 LPs). Pushkin's sentimental tale of a St. Petersburg blade and his Unbeloved, given a skilled and rousing reading by Russia's leading opera group. The score displays Tchaikovsky at the top of his meltingly melancholy form. Soprano Galina Vishnevskaya is particularly fine as the lofty-souled heroine whose real-life prototype became Tchaikovsky's wife in a marriage that almost drove him to suicide...
...Gateses, things quickly go from bad to hideous; Laura tosses a glass of Scotch in Tracy's face, and Tracy, rising to slug her, falls to the floor, dead of a heart attack. A repentant Laura kneels and prays that he be restored to life. While a pit chorus explains what is going on, three legendary miracles are enacted at one side of the stage: an Italian Renaissance woman finds her dead child coming back to life, a Scottish lass sees her cow revive, and a German soldier of the Thirty Years' War exchanges his own life...
Grateful for the miracle, Laura tries to change, but soon the old argument boils up again. Tracy dodges a flying ashtray, lifts his fist and drops dead again, this time permanently. While the doctor slips in and gives Laura a hypo, the chorus chants the moral: "The only death in life is the death of love...
...third Thompson. The third of the seven movements is a first cousin to the "Londonderry Air," and the fourth is based on the hymn "O God Our Help In Ages Past." There are fanfares and a full-blown fugue and finale. This is all effective writing, and the chorus produced some glorious sounds...