PRESS RELEASE
23 FEBRUARY 2016
The Last Judgement comes to London
A forthcoming performance of Spohr’s ‘The Last Judgement’ will be the first in London within living memory. Rising conductor Mark Austin revives a masterpiece that used to sit alongside Handel’s ‘Messiah’, Haydn’s ‘Creation’ and Mozart’s ‘Requiem’ in the repertoire of choral societies around the UK.
The performance will take place on Friday 4 March 2016 at LSO St Luke’s, London, featuring Faust Chamber Orchestra and Cambridge University Musical Society Chorus together with four rising star soloists under the baton of Mark Austin. Louis Spohr (1784-1859) was a travelling violin virtuoso, composer and conductor whose European reputation in his lifetime equalled, and possibly exceeded, that of his near contemporary Beethoven. The first performance of ‘The Last Judgement’ in Kassel in 1826 overwhelmed the audience with its dramatic power and emotional immediacy. Spohr was invited to conduct the work in Norwich in 1830 and it became a firm favourite throughout the 19th century, until the First World War prompted its decline and it disappeared from the repertoire. Besides a huge legacy of symphonies, operas, oratorios and chamber music, Spohr is credited as being the first conductor to use a baton in the UK, a practice which soon became mainstream. He also invented rehearsal letters, a simple idea which has revolutionised the rehearsal process for musicians all over the world. |
Mark Austin comments: “Spohr was a musical giant of his age and this masterful oratorio has long deserved to return to London, one of Europe’s leading musical cities. It’s extraordinarily varied: at times it’s reminiscent of Handel’s majestic choruses, at others of Schumann’s chromaticism. But the music has a wonderful directness that explains the effect it had on audiences of its day”.
It is hoped that this performance will generate new interest in the oratorio from choral societies around the UK, the oldest of whom will have archive material documenting their own performances at the end of the 19th century. There will be a second performance at West Road Concert Hall, Cambridge on Sunday 6 March at 7.30pm.
It is hoped that this performance will generate new interest in the oratorio from choral societies around the UK, the oldest of whom will have archive material documenting their own performances at the end of the 19th century. There will be a second performance at West Road Concert Hall, Cambridge on Sunday 6 March at 7.30pm.
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