COMPOSERS: Waxman
LABELS: DG
ALBUM TITLE: Waxman
WORKS: Joshua
PERFORMER: Maximilian Schell (narrator), Ann Hallenberg (mezzo-soprano), Beter Buchi, Patrick Poole (tenor), Rod Gilfry (baritone); Prague Philharmonic Choir; Prague Philharmonia/James Sedares
CATALOGUE NO: 477 5724
Emigrating from Berlin to the USA in
1934, Franz Waxman became head of
music at Universal Studios at the age
of 29. Though principally famous as a
film-music composer (he scored more
than 150 films) the oratorio Joshua
was among his last, and largest, of his
concert works. Written following his
wife’s death in 1957, it was dedicated
to her memory and emerges – in
this, its first complete performance
since 1961 – as a passionately sincere
utterance. Furthermore, its tale
of the Jews’ first wars in the Holy
Land is, unfortunately, timeless.
Waxman’s command of his forces
is impressive, his general musical
language redolent of Mahler and
Bloch. Many moments suggest the
wide screen, not least the baleful
march (with seven trumpets) that
brings down the walls of Jericho, but
Waxman is admirably eclectic in
rising to the big musical moments,
such as the strongly polyphonic
chorus of rejoicing that ends Part 1,
or the aria ‘Rahab’s Plea’ – for me the
expressive high-point of the oratorio.
Like many works employing spoken
narration, however, the music can
seem awkwardly broken up, while
Maximilian Schell is oddly quiet and
inward in declaiming what could
be a much fierier text. Rod Gilfry is
a virile tenor soloist as both Moses
and Joshua, but Ann Hallenberg is
outstanding in the part of the harlot
Rahab. Calum MacDonald