The 19th century deemed Louis Spohr a great composer, and considered his oratorio The Last Judgement a masterpiece. First performed in 1826, the work reportedly overwhelmed its early audiences and remained popular until the first world war, when it sank into obscurity. This performance, with Mark Austin conducting the Faust Chamber Orchestra and Cambridge University Musical Society Chorus, gave us a rare opportunity to hear it live.
Spohr was a pivotal composer, sometimes too indebted to his predecessors, while his successors tended to improve upon his innovations. The Last Judgement contains passages reminiscent of Mozart’s Magic Flute and Beethoven’s Fidelio, while its brooding orchestration and muscular choral writing look forward to, yet are overshadowed by, Schumann and, most notably, Brahms. Changes in taste may have affected its reputation, since this is not so much a dramatisation of apocalyptic catastrophe as a meditation on the redemptive idea of “a new heaven and a new earth” after this world is swept away. The interwar generation must have found its majestic optimism hard to swallow.
Austin introduced the piece from the podium, and his affection for it was apparent in the eloquent intensity of his conducting. The woodwind and brass sounded particularly fine, though the string tone could in places have been warmer. There was beautifully focused choral singing, above all in the hushed passages where Spohr is at his most contemplative. Mezzo Anna Harvey stood out among the quartet of soloists with her rich tone and sensitive phrasing. Tenor Bradley Smith and soprano Rosalind Coad became more commanding as the evening progressed. Adam Green was the very dark-voiced baritone.
