Delius
A Mass of Life
Roderick Williams (baritone); Bergen Philharmonic/Mark Elder
Lawo Classics LWC1265 92:17 mins
Delius’s Eine Messe des Lebens (A Mass of Life) was completed in 1905, and this is just its fifth commercial recording. It is a very good one. The sessions took place immediately after the Norwegian premiere of the work in September 2022, and have a palpable sense of fresh discovery about them.
If there’s a single hero of the performance it’s undoubtedly Mark Elder, who though an experienced Delian had not previously conducted Eine Messe des Lebens. Elder is more urgent than Beecham, Groves, Hickox or Hill in the opening chorus (the original German text is used), catching not just the thrill of the writing, but also a destabilising sense of the danger
it channels.
That said, Elder’s interpretation is never merely about cheap excitement. In the Mass’s third section, ‘The Song of Life’, he carefully avoids lavishing too much Wagnerian lushness on the Tristan-like exchanges of the tenor, soprano and alto soloists, and imparts a Mendelssohnian lightness to the choir’s impish ‘dance over dale
and hill.’
In the central part of Zarathustra, baritone Roderick Williams brings a degree less heroic grit than some rivals, but compensates richly by his intelligent pointing of Nietzsche’s headily symbolic text, and his generously lyrical tone. Both he and the excellent Bergen choirs are at their sensitive best in the ‘Night Song’, and in the hazy sensuality of the ‘Midday’ section. But it’s Elder’s astute conducting that really stands out here, lending a work that easily overheats a satisfying measure of nuance and dignity.
Terry Blain