The Oratorio discussion thread

I'm hoping that if you've opened this thread, you know what an oratorio is

Simply put, it's a piece of sung classical music comprising of choruses, arias, and recitatives (with some duets and trios thrown in for good measure).

Now, the most well known oratorio (by a long shot) is Handel's Messiah. So if there's any interest in this thread, we'll undoubtedly start by talking about that.

Possibly second on the list of popularity is Haydn's Creation. (My personal favourite and I'd love to discuss it with others)

Despite those two being the most well known, there are countless others. I've been fortunate to sing in a production of Handel's Samson - a piece I wouldn't know about otherwise.

So, what oratorios do you know, or have been involved in. I'd like to listen and learn some more, but if there are specific suggestions, I'll have a listen

 

Sample musical clips would be mightily appreciated.

 

I sing in a choir (St. Caecilia Chorus here in Kosice) and we've done Halleluia from the Messiah and Vollendet ist das grosse Werk from the Creation last Easter. I love them, especially Vollendet. I have a recording of it, but I'll have to convert it to a more useful format in order to upload it on YouTube.

And if things go well, we might do the full Messiah together with the Royal Choral Society in a couple of years.


Oh yeah, and do Rachmaninov's Vespers (Vsenoshchnoe bdenie) count as an oratorio? We've done them together with the Royal Choral Society on this year's Pohoda festival (one of the biggest music festivals in Central/Eastern Europe), which took place last weekend. I don't have a recording of it yet, but here is a little snippet from the first part, recorded by someone in the audience.

 

If we're starting with Messiah, I'll put some clips up a bit later today

 

I confess that I'm not sure where all these definitions start and stop. Would Berlioz' Romeo and Juliet be considered an oratorio? Or Britten's Spring Symphony; I'd think oratorio makes as much sense as 'symphony' which it is in almost no traditional sense of th word. I'm curious.

 

The wiki definition is pretty good

An oratorio is a large musical composition including an orchestra, a choir, and soloists. The oratorio was somewhat modeled after the opera. Their similarities include the use of a choir, soloists, an ensemble, various distinguishable characters, and arias. However, opera is musical theatre, while oratorio is strictly a concert piece.

Anyway, here are some of my favourites from Messiah

http://www.fanforce.co.uk/halibut/messiah

 

Hmm, by that definition, Romeo and Juliet is definitely an oratorio.

 

I didn't even *know* "The Messiah" was an oratorio, typical...