Looking Forward to Resurrection
A last minute change to what I am going to post today. Originally this was going to be tomorrow's music, but then I realised that the words are more suited for today. Perhaps not so on the first day after the crucifixion - but now when we can have the benefit of knowing what is to come on Easter Sunday looking forward to that day and saying with the choir "you WILL rise again" is perfectly reasonable.
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Like yesterday's choice, this music is not religious in the strict sense but it is tremendously uplifting and in terms of the composer's life it was part of the process of conversion to catholicism which happened a few years after he had written this music.
Quite a long time ago I wrote a blog entry entitled The Tingle Factor and this was the music that was most certainly my no.1 in that regard. Linked from there is a complete performance of the Symphony, but here we have just the finale. The particular "tingle" moment is just a few minutes from the end when the choir sings "Aufersteh’n, ja aufersteh’n wirst du" ("rise again, yes, you will rise again") - it is at 5.29 in this recording.
There are - as usual - many performances to choose from. This is a reasonably old recording and the conductor is Leonard Bernstein. Watching different recordings almost every conductor is really giving his/her all when it comes to the climax - Bernstein is no exception and watching him in action really illustrates the emotion generated by this music. He was, of course, always a bit of a showman - but as you watch other conductors you realise that this music really does bring out that side in them all - there are one or two who do not show it so much and that is reflected in the impact of their performances.
Here - nothing is held back.
I struggle whenever someone asks me "what is your favourite music" - there is so much of it - but this symphony would always be in the shortlist.
