The Schubert Mass in E Flat plays about an hour and we are singing almost all the time.
There is a solo quartet, but their role is limited and is all back-and-forth with the chorus.
It's a lot of singing and a long stand, but mercifully Hans Graf gave us two short sits:
one during a solo patch and the either, very briefly, between movements.
These sits, although short in total time, made all the difference for those of us with rickety knees.
There are two big fugues in the work – Cum Sancto Spirito in the Gloria section and the traditionally fugal Et Vitam Venturi from the Credo. The former was easily the longest fugue I have ever sung, but it was not as brutally exhausting in performance as it was in rehearsals in which we sang every part of the fugue two or three times.
There is lots and lots of beautiful music in this Mass, but for me the high point was definitely the last movement. This starts with a grim, solemn Agnus Dei from the basses with a soaring, rising counter-melody in the tenor line. All the parts get a shot at these motifs in one form or another, while the orchestra plays dramatic, strongly accented and, for the period, dissonant and chromatic chords. It is very dramatic and solemn – and then it moves to the warm, gentle Dona Nobis Pacem. This lilting, chordal treatment is repeated several times, each one slightly different in harmony and the motion of the inner voices. I found being a part of these subtly changing harmonic patterns very satisfying and moving. Then back to the angular, almost harsh Agnus Dei treatment, and a final, short two pages of the Dona Nobis Pacem, taken very effectively by Graf at a substantially slower tempo. The overall effect, as far as I am concerned, can only be described as drop-dead gorgeous and moving.
This mass was composed very late in Schubert's life, but it is quite different from the wonderful romanticism of other works from this period -- for example, the very famous Cello Quintet. The mass is overall much more traditional, that tradition being ecclesiastic. All the masses from this era were intended to be performed as services, but this work seems almost to demand a church, or cathedral, with its vaulted ceilings, luminous stained glass and reverberant stone walls.
The audience responded respectfully Friday night, but Saturday, after a long dramatic silence held by Graf's raised hands, perhaps for meditation, the audience leapt cheering to their feet.
Taken together, which seems fair since the women did not sing in the Shostakovich, these first two concerts – the Shostakovich Babi Yar Symphony and the Schubert Mass #6 – have been one of the best starts to a season that I can remember. And now on to the holiday craziness.