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This being a Sunday, the Sabbath, it seems an appropriate time to publish this, which I hope will not seem morbid or cause any distress. Apologies if so. Anyway, on and off, I have been contemplating, providing I knew that my time had come, what piece of music I would listen to before shuffling off.
From quite a few contenders – all slow, poignant, reflective and transporting (as fits me) – I currently choose (it may change) J. S. Bach’s organ piece Schmücke dich, o liebe Seele, BWV654, in Schoenberg’s wonderful orchestration conducted equally wonderfully by Michael Gielen (with a word for the principal cellist of the Baden-Baden/Freiburg Orchestra)…
It’s music that seems to take me to the Edge of Earth, going on to, as yet, somewhere unknown.
Other choices, from more than four, included…
…the slow movement of Elgar One, Solti’s LPO/Decca recording (something special seemed to happen at this point in the sessions)…
https://www.discogs.com/release/5063961-Elgar-Georg-Solti-London-Philharmonic-Orchestra-Symphony-No1/image/SW1hZ2U6MTUzNzY0NTI= Decca SXL6569; 1972
…the slow movement of Gerald Finzi’s Clarinet Concerto, with Andrew Marriner, Sir Neville conducting…
…and the ‘Sarabande’, one of Busoni’s Studies for his opera Doktor Faust…
If it’s not too personal, or difficult, maybe readers would like to share (in Comments) their ‘going away’ music (and performance), however frivolous; I am reminded that Peter Sellers chose Joe Loss’s version of ‘In the Mood’ for his funeral, which had Goon Show mates Harry Secombe and Spike Milligan rolling with laughter in the church.
more…
And there’s the beyond-words Adagio of Franz Schmidt’s Symphony No.4
Vienna Philharmonic (Emmanuel Brabec, cello)/Zubin Mehta.
From Rückert-Lieder: Christa Ludwig/Philharmonia/Otto Klemperer (HMV).
I agree something did happen to Solti’s Elgar One. The slow movement is deeply moving (one of the very greatest) and played to perfection by the LPO. What happened was that these recordings ere made during the three day week instituted by the Heath Government. For a time we all worked on the expectation that the electricity might be turned off at any moment and making a recording offered no protection. Somehow that tension infused this recording but in a way that created something near perfection. As good a piece of music and recording with which to depart one’s mortal coil.
I suppose for me it would have to be the Romanza from VW 5. No raging against the dying of the light there. Music by a fellow-agnostic, or perhaps (again like me) an optimistic one, hoping/sensing that something might lie beyond our comprehension. Your choice of the slow movement of Elgar 1, Col? That’d do too! But I would insist on holding out right until the clarinet’s farewell – a slow, final, utterly contented breath perfectly expressed in music. The emotionally devastating slow movement of Elgar 2? No…too much pain, regret and anguish, not least in the final climax. But the slow movement of Razumovsky 3 would do fine. Serene expiry with a final soft pizzicato! But in the event of a full, unexpected recovery, the first movement of Schumann’s Rhenish Symphony might well have me leaping from the bed, confounding friends, enemies and doctors!
Andrew, I’d certainly have the VW5 Romanza on my list, one of your productions of this work, probably Leonard Slatkin’s time-taken Philharmonia version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7lrNXUOcQds&list=OLAK5uy_mHDZbKRykjRdulOrwb4JrV72uxXSJpfYg&index=1 (Romanza on track 3). Going the other way – which would be better – yes to the ‘Rhenish’, Sawallisch/Dresden, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9u1u_xAYg4o. Col
Nearer to the end, probably, than any of you so far, I’m quite happy to go on listening to John’s Pilgrim, in the double string orchestra version, as recorded by the BBC SSO/Austin back quite a few years ago now.
Thanks Monica, Pilgrim is new to me, so I am pleased to have found it in the recording you cite, BBC Scottish/Christopher Austin, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrKc4zk_Wzg. At times I am reminded of Tippett and Lutoslawski.
And John’s introductions, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4NknUCW5I4 and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhzeiLOs13g. Col
How wonderful of you, Colin, to have found this, and especially the introduction by John, recorded at a time when he was already very ill, as it is possible to hear, and yet still lucid and intelligent. This introduction was filmed by Kenneth Woods, who took the trouble to travel to our house, at a time when John was to be the featured composer for the season with the ESO. Sadly John was not able to attend very much, if at all. (We did attend one concert in Malvern, at great effort, but I’m not sure if this was within this season, or before it – I’d have to check). I am eternally grateful to Ken for this short film of John, and for his commitment and friendship, before and since.
Thanks to this thread, Monica, I’ve just heard your John’s Pilgrim for the first time, and I listened again, and again… What a work. Sometimes one stumbles across the right work at the right time in one’s life, and this morning – well – thank you because it means to the world to have discovered this piece (thank you Col for posting the link)
Dear Guy,
Colin has drawn my attention to your gracious comment. I will ask him to pass on my thanks, in case you do not see this additional remark of mine. I am so pleased to see that this work has meant something special to you, and thank you indeed for putting the comment on-line – this at a time when things are so difficult for so many composers of the second half of the 20th century. My best wishes to you.