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Rossini's not my favorite either, but this piece is perfectly joyful and never fails to cheer me up! I know that Matthäus Passion performance; watch it every season. Stellar. I question a few tempo decisions here and there, but who doesn't? That choir is unstoppable. Fliegner is picking up seamlessly right where Schmidt-Gaden left off. The soloist you linked to is breathtaking, and, well, that Elias Mädler -- talk about ripe! Anyone who doesn't find him a stunner is a sicko. The Germans still get it: as feminized and modern liberal a state as they inhabit, they seem remarkably unthreatened by gendered traditions. I remember talking about these sorts of questions with a German woman I worked with, who turned out to be a lesbian, and run-of-the-mill feminist. She was generally impatient with harder-edged feminism, believing Germany had done a great job giving women every opportunity and was by now above any pettiness that could throw traditions like these into question. I also once sat next to two women in Leipzig to hear the Thomaner. One was from Berlin, one from Leipzig. They fell into conversation, and their knowledge of the classical music world in that area was very rich, though neither were professional musicians themselves. They knew every choir in the area in some detail, especially the Thomaner, and took great interest in the fate of particularly talented boys who went on to become musicians. There is (or was) even an Intercity train in Germany christened the "Regenburger Domspatzen"! Not to say the Germans haven't gone down the same ugly path regarding BL, but I think a bit less "severely." Austria too. The English miraculously hang onto Oxbridge and a few cathedral and school choirs (though who knows what the Great Awokening soon will bring; I have it on good authority that the current Zeitgeist might bring King's to an end), but their answer to the Tölzer is what? Libera? |