In "one of the mightiest shouts of human aspiration ever made in music," is this the most beautiful music ever? Or this? Or this?

Or, "FOUND" FREE MUSIC (SAMPLES), Part 2

In Part 1, we enjoyed Seattle Chamber Music Society's gift of the 1st movement of Schubert's String Quintet (plus bonus music). The unconscionably delayed Part 2 is inspired by a free video preview offered by the Berlin Philharmonic's Digital Concert Hall of the orchestra's January 2026 performances, under Chief Conductor Kirill Petrenko, of a work described by Deryck Cooke as "one of the mightiest shouts of human aspiration ever made in music," which the Philharmoniker hadn't played since opening night of the 2011-12 season, Sept. 18, 2011. -- Ed.

UPDATE: A new block of performances added from a special source

There's a snatch on YouTube from that 2011 Berlin Phil performance under then-Chief Conductor Simon Rattle

[2:34] "Accende lumen sensibus" ("Kindle our senses with light")
[Eventually we're going to hear a little more of this performance.]

IN ALL LIKELIHOOD YOU ALREADY RECOGNIZE THE PIECE.
(IF NOT, WILL THIS LONGER EXCERPT GIVE IT AWAY?)

I've chosen an unusual start point. It just happens that this strategic moment is one of the most beautiful musical moments I know. Yes, yes, I say that, or words to that effect, a lot here. Why, it came up in Part 1 of this post, in the cases of both the first and the second movements of the Schubert C major String Quintet. In my defense, I would point out that since I'm in charge of the Sunday Classics program, and I get to choose all the music, an awful lot of it is music that's especially close to my heart.

Let's start by just listening through this little chunk I've carved out. -- Ed.

"Imple superna gratia, gratia, quae tu creasti pectora"
("Fill with heavenly grace, grace, the breasts that thou created")

[4:10] Joyce Barker & Agnes Giebel (s), Kerstin Meyer (ms), Helen Watts (c), Kenneth Neate (t), Alfred Orda (b), Arnold van Mill (bs); Charles Spinks, organ; BBC Chorus, BBC Choral Society, Goldsmith's Choral Union, Hamp­stead Choral Society, Emanuel School Boys' Choir, Orpington Junior Sing­ers, "much-augmented" London Symphony Orchestra, Jascha Hor­en­stein, cond. Live performance from the Royal Albert Hall, Mar. 20, 1959

by Ken

In this case, the sheer beauty of the musical moment seems to me to have a crucial structural purpose, which is why I've made this seriously varied assortment of performance clips. And they really are very different -- in pacing, obviously (I've arranged them in "length" order, but performances that are closest in length may be the most different in everything else -- flow, tone(s), color(s), emphasis. Some of them may be barely recognizable as the same music. In each case, though, I encourage you to take note of how your experience is affected by the first voice we hear -- and to a lesser extent the second, and then the third, fourth, and fifth, who enter together. But especially the first, who not only introduces this melody but throughout the movement we're sampling will be sailing and soaring over the musical staff and over the ensemble.

If there's one thing our composer knew, it was voices. He spent the major part of his career in the pit of opera houses. But that didn't incline him to make life easy for singer when he wrote for them. It's more that he had ideas about how he could stretch those voices. In this case, for his top voice, the first soprano, he understood that coming in un-warmed-up she couldn't be asked to leap straight to high B-flats and Cs, and at first asked her only to show great fluidity and tonal sheen and be able to sustain crucial high A's. But gradually he worked in the B-flats and, yes, a couple of sustained high Cs.

[3:36] Faye Robinson & Margaret Marshall (s), Ortrun Wenkel & Hildegard Laurich (c), Mallory Walker (t), Richard Stilwell (b), Simon Estes (bs-b); Ernst Würdiger, organ; Hessian Radio Figural Chorus, Frankfurt Kantorei, Frankfurt Singakadamie, Limburg Cathedral Boys' Choir, Frankfurt Opera House & Museum Orchestra, Michael Gielen, cond. Sony Classical, recorded live at the reopening of the Alte Oper, Aug. 28, 1981

[4:03] Cheryl Studer & Sylvia McNair (s), Anne Sofie von Otter & Rosemarie Lang (ms), Peter Seiffert (t), Bryn Terfel (b), Jan-Hendrik Rootering (bs); organist uncredited; Rundfunk Berlin Chorus, Prague Philharmonic Chorus, Tölz Boys' Choir, Berlin Philharmonic, Claudio Abbado, cond. DG, recorded live in the Philharmonie, Feb. 11-13, 1994

[4:18] Elizabeth Connell & Edith Wiens (s), Trudeliese Schmidt & Nadine Denize (ms), Richard Versalle (t), Jorma Hynninen (b), Hans Sotin (bs); David Hill, organ; Tiffin School Boys' Choir, London Philharmonic Choir & Orchestra, Klaus Tennstedt, cond. EMI, recorded in Walthamstow Town Hall & Westminster Cathedral, April & October 1986

[4:26] Heather Harper & Lucia Popp (s), Yvonne Minton (ms), Helen Watts (c), René Kollo (t), John Shirley-Quirk (bs-b), Martti Talvela (bs); organ recorded in the Vienna Musikverein, organist uncredited; Vienna State Opera Chorus, Vienna Singverein, Vienna Boys' Choir, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Georg Solti, cond. Decca, recorded in the Sofiensaal, Vienna, Aug. 30-Sept. 1, 1971

[4:47] Sharon Sweet & Pamela Coburn (s), Florence Quivar & Brigitte Fassbaender (ms), Richard Leech (t), Siegmund Nimsgern (b), Simon Estes (bs-b); Wolfram Koloseus, Aeolian-Skinner organ of Symphony Hall, Boston; Vienna State Opera Concert Chorus, ORF Chorus, Arnold Schoenberg Chorus, Vienna Boys' Choir, Vienna Philharmonic, Lorin Maazel, cond. CBS-Sony, recorded in the Vienna Musikvereinsaal, June 19-24, 1989

[4:51] Júlia Várady & Jane Eaglen (s), Trudeliese Schmidt (ms), Jadwiga Rappé (c), Kenneth Riegel (t), Eike Wilm Schulte (b); Hans Sotin (bs); Malcolm Hicks, organ; London Symphony Orchestra Chorus, Eton College Boys' Choir, London Philharmonic Choir & Orchestra, Klaus Tennstedt, cond. EMI (video) & LPO Live (audio only), recorded live in the Royal Festival Hall, Jan. 27-28, 1991


I DON'T THINK THERE ARE ANY BAD PERFORMANCES HERE

Oh, some of them aren't favorites of mine, though some of them are -- the Horenstein, the Solti, and both Tennstedts. But three of them seem to me to start out with a particular advantage, in the terms I laid out: first sopranos Faye Robinson (with Michael Gielen), Heather Harper (with Georg Solti), and perhaps specialest of all Júlia Várady (in the Tennstedt live performance), managing to make this music sound almost unchallenging while shaping it with remarkable personal grace and warmth.

Robinson seems to have been born to sing this music -- she recorded this piece with two other, very different conductors (I considered lining up excerpts from all three recordings); her contribution is one factor in making one of those other recordings my favorite of this piece. As for Harper, she brings a somewhat larger vocal presence to the music, and rides the top of the ensemble in a way that Solti in his remarkable performance must have especially valued.


WAIT! ONE THING WE'RE STILL MISSING IS CONTEXT

The specially carved-out excerpt we've heard marks the entrance of the seven vocal soloists heard in this movement (an eighth joins later in the piece), singing alongside the two full choruses, singing sometimes separately and sometimes jointly -- there are also important parts written for a boys' chorus.
To establish some sense of context, let's hear the first 45 bars of the piece.

"Veni, veni, creator Spiritus" ("Come, come, creator Spirit)"

[1:14] Ernst Würdiger, organ; Hessian Radio Figural Chorus, Frankfurt Kantorei, Frankfurt Singakadamie, Limburg Cathedral Boys' Choir, Frankfurt Opera House & Museum Orchestra, Michael Gielen, cond. Sony Classical, recorded live at the reopening of the Alte Oper, Aug. 28, 1981

[1:24] David Hill, organ; Tiffin School Boys' Choir, London Philharmonic Choir & Orchestra, Klaus Tennstedt, cond. EMI, recorded in Walthamstow Town Hall & Westminster Cathedral, April & October 1986

[1:25] organ recorded in the Vienna Musikverein, organist uncredited; Vienna State Opera Chorus, Vienna Singverein, Vienna Boys' Choir, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Georg Solti, cond. Decca, recorded in the Sofiensaal, Vienna, Aug. 30-Sept. 1, 1971

[1:27] Malcolm Hicks, organ; London Symphony Orchestra Chorus, Eton College Boys' Choir, London Philharmonic Choir & Orchestra, Klaus Tennstedt, cond. EMI (video) & LPO Live (audio only), recorded live in the Royal Festival Hall, Jan. 27-28, 1991

[1:28] Charles Spinks, organ; BBC Chorus, BBC Choral Society, Goldsmith's Choral Union, Hamp­stead Choral Society, Emanuel School Boys' Choir, Orpington Junior Sing­ers, "much-augmented" London Symphony Orchestra, Jascha Hor­en­stein, cond. Live performance from the Royal Albert Hall, Mar. 20, 1959

[1:29] organist uncredited; Rundfunk Berlin Chorus, Prague Philharmonic Chorus, Tölz Boys' Choir, Berlin Philharmonic, Claudio Abbado, cond. DG, recorded live in the Philharmonie, Feb. 11-13, 1994

[1:35] Wolfram Koloseus, Aeolian-Skinner organ of Symphony Hall, Boston; Vienna Boys' Choir, Vienna State Opera Concert Chorus, ORF Chorus, Arnold Schoenberg Chorus, Vienna Boys' Choir, Vienna Philharmonic, Lorin Maazel, cond. CBS-Sony, recorded in the Vienna Musikvereinsaal, June 19-24, 1989


THE WHOLE THING

You've noticed, I'm sure, that our 45-bar clip changes character dramatically at the end, broadening and quietening, clearly preparing for something dramatically different. Which is the chunk we've already heard. So of course we want to hear the two chunks put together.

FIRST, A NOTE ON THE SUNG TEXT

What Mahler set for what became Part I of his Eighth Symphony, often known as the Symphony of a Thousand -- or, better, in German, "Symphonie der Tausend" ("Symphony of the Thousand") -- is the 9th-century Latin hymn Veni, creator Spiritus, credited to the archbishop of Mainz, Hrabamus Maurus (776-856). But Mahler set the text very freely, and with such extensive repetition and overlap, almost a verbal collage, that it's impossible to attempt to lay out the text in accordance with the setting. Clearly he didn't expect listeners to be picking up on every word, but instead to get the effect of them, with particular attention to words that he gave special emphasis -- like the whole phrase "Veni, veni, creator Spiritus" and the words "gratia" (grace) and "pectoris" (literally breasts, but figuratively hearts). Note, btw, that I'm following Mahler's usage in lower-casing "creator" but capping "Spiritus." All the sources I've seen either lower-case both or cap both -- but the manuscript makes pretty clear that he must have thought of "creator" as a sort of occupational title, but "Spirit" as a specific entity. (Okay, he didn't use the vocative comma after "Veni"; sorry, Gustav, but that comma's gotta be there.) [I still need to fix the text boxes!]

I might also point out that in my rendering of the bits of text we're hearing, I've done something I haven't seen done elsewhere: double the "veni" in our 9th-century author's "Veni, creator Spiritus" and the "gratia" (grace) in that opening solo line, "Imple superna gratia." For the simple reason that that's how Mahler set them. In the first instance, since I haven't spent much time poring through the literature, I don't know whether Mahler left us an account of how he came to decide on the need to double the "veni." I certainly wouldn't be surprised to learn that it happened almost as soon as he began looking at the ancient hymn as something that might serve his creative needs at that moment in his creative life. Because he set the line almost without exception as if it was written: "Veni! Veni, creator Spiritus!" The symphony could hardly begin more vociferously in the imperative mode -- it's an order to the "creator Spirit." But almost immediately -- say, 45 bars in -- it transforms into the most deeply felt plea imaginable -- for "gratia."

Here are a couple of live performances of just this much of these opening 5½ minutes:

[5:20; Implene superna gratia at 1:21] Martina Arroyo & Erna Spoorenberg (s), Julia Hamari (ms), Norma Procter (c), Donald Grobe (t), Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (b), Franz Crass (bs); Eberhard Kraus, organ; North German Radio (NDR) & West German Radio (WDR) Choruses, Women's Chorus of the Munich Motet Choir, Regensburger Domspätzen, Bavarian Radio Chorus & Symphony Orchestra, Rafael Kubelik, cond. Live performance (from the Herkulessaal of the Residenz?), June 24, 1970 (released by Audite)


[5:37; Implene superna gratia at 1:28] Joyce Barker & Agnes Giebel (s), Kerstin Meyer (ms), Helen Watts (c), Kenneth Neate (t), Alfred Orda (b), Arnold van Mill, (bs); Charles Spinks, organ; BBC Chorus, BBC Choral Society, Goldsmith's Choral Union, Hampstead Choral Society, Emanuel School Boys' Choir, Orpington Junior Singers, "much-augmented" London Symphony Orchestra, Jascha Horenstein, cond. Live performance from the Royal Albert Hall, Mar. 20, 1959

UPDATE: Four more performances -- from a special source!

I'd searched for this block of performances before publishing the original post, only to find them finally tucked away in one of the many abandoned "draft" versions. They're from the four extant Leonard Bernstein performances I'm aware of.


[5:51; "Imple superna gratia" at 1:27] Adele Addison & Lucine Amara (s), Jennie Tourel (ms), Lili Chookasian (c), Richard Tucker (t), George London (bs-b), Ezio Flagello (bs); Schola Cantorum of New York, Juilliard Chorus, Columbus Boychoir, New York Philharmonic, Leonard Bernstein, cond. Columbia-CBS-Sony, just the "Veni, creator" recorded live at the "inaugural concert" of Philharmonic Hall, Sept. 22, 1962
[NOTE FROM THE CONCERT PROGRAM: "The Allen Organ used in this performance is an electronic instrument, with two manuals and a 32-note pedalboard. A multiple arrangement of speakers is energized by several 75-watt amplifiers. The Allen system of tone production is wholly electronic and utilizes transistorized oscillators." Note, though, that no organist is credited.]

[5:51; "Imple superna gratia" at 1:28] Saramae Endich & Ella Lee (s), Jennie Tourel & Beverly Wolff (ms), George Shirley (t), John Boyden (b), Ezio Flagello (bs); presumably still the Allen electronic organ, organist still uncredited; Westminster Choir, St. Kilian Boychoir, New York Philharmonic, Leonard Bernstein, cond. Live performance from Philharmonic Hall, Dec. 11, 1965 (broadcast mono)

[5:40; "Imple superna gratia" at 1:27] Erna Spoorenberg & Gwyneth Jones (s), Anna Reynolds (ms), Norma Procter (c), John Mitchinson (t), Vladimir Ruzdjak (b), Donald McIntyre (bs-b); Hans Vollenweider, organ; Leeds Festival Chorus, London Symphony Orchestra Chorus, Orpington Junior Singers, Highgate School Boys' Choir, Finchley Children's Music Group, London Symphony Orchestra, Leonard Bernstein, cond. Columbia-CBS-Sony, recorded in Walthamstow Assembly Hall, Apr. 18-20, 1966 ("mastering, echo and organ synchronisation at the Stadtkirche Winterthur, Switzerland")

[5:29; "Imple superna gratia" at 1:23] Margaret Price & Judith Blegen (s), Trudeliese Schmidt & Agnes Baltsa (ms); Kenneth Riegel (t), Hermann Prey (b), José van Dam (bs-b); Rudolf Scholz, organ; Vienna State Opera Concert Chorus, Vienna Singverein, Vienna Boys' Choir, Vienna Philharmonic, Leonard Bernstein, cond. DG, recorded live by ORF (Austrian Radio) in the Grosses Festspielhaus of the Salzburg Festival on Saturday, Aug. 30, the last night of the 1975 festival (with possible inclusions from live performances in the Vienna Konzerthaus, Monday-Tuesday, Sept. 1-2, at which Unitel made the video recording also released by DG)

As you probably know, our great loss is the remake of Mahler 8 Lenny was scheduled to record live in the upcoming NY Phil season to complete his DG Mahler cycle -- before he went and died. Kudos to DG for completing that cycle by licensing the ORF broadcast tape from the 1975 Salzburg performance. But man, would I like to have heard what Lenny's final crack at the symphony would have been like!

(I might add that really the reason I made these clips is so that I myself could listen to at list this bit of the four performances side by side!)


AND THAT'S ABOUT AS FAR AS WE'RE GOING TO GO TODAY

In the long blog silence in which I tried to figure out how to proceed with this post, concocting a blog-dashboardful of I-don't-know-how-many abandoned possible routes forward, I never expected to be signing off after covering a whopping 5½ minutes' worth of music. I imagined at the very least we would be jumping to a complete Part I, which in the end accounts for only about 30 percent of the symphony. So we would surely want to at least sample maybe the opening and closing of Part II, the "completion" Mahler finally settled on foth , even if most of that "stuck" time was anchored to Part I. It's a work that, really, demands to be experienced that way.

It always fascinates me to imagine how composers of massively ambitious works such as this -- I always think of Wagner's Ring cycle in this connection -- imagined audiences taking them in when their experience of the work might be no more than a single live performance. Everything I know and love about such works has been an accumulation of experience largely obtained via recordings and broadcast performances. Mahler, who died in 1911, lived just barely into the age of recording -- and of course made some piano-roll recordings in 1905. But could he have imagined that recording would ever encompass any of his music, least of all one as vast as the Eighth Symphony? And Wagner, remember, died in 1883. For that matter, almost everything I know and love about the large quantity of music I know and love has been acquired and accumulated this way.

# # #