Thinking back to the most recent summer Olympics, which were held in Beijing, China, my memories of the elaborate opening ceremonies are almost as strong as my memories of Michael Phelps winning his many gold medals. A friend of mine was so impressed with what he saw on opening night of the Olympics that when I gave him a DVD of the opening ceremonies he considered it an exceptionally cool gift.
At a certain point, the size and scale of an event can become so vast that those qualities take on a life of their own, and it is no different with classical music, where some great works have become defined, at least in part, by their sheer size and, to a certain degree, their spectacle.
So for those who plan to watch the entire Olympics, some of it, or none of it, we offer a list of super-sized classical music and opera to enjoy long after the games are over. Each of the works share with the Olympic Games a nobility of spirit and grandness of conception. The performers who take on these works need to be on top of their game – like champion athletes – if they hope to meet the challenges that the composers have laid for them. For the listener, the challenges of taking all this music in will vary, but the rewards are many and far-lasting.
Gustav Mahler – Symphony No. 8 (download on iTunes or buy on Amazon): All of this Austrian composer’s nine symphonies are larger than most by other composers, and most convey a sense of epic journey, especially in terms of their emotional and dynamic range. But none is bigger in scope than his Eighth Symphony, which is nicknamed “Symphony of A Thousand” because of the number of people required to perform it. The score calls for a truly huge orchestra, organ, multiple choirs and soloists (and, believe it or not, a mandolin). The vast first movement is an ocean-sized chorus of voices invoking the “Creator Spiritus” — the creative force, the spirit of life, the energy of the cosmos. However you translate it, the listener is meant to be swept away in a torrent of massed sound. Mahler, in fact, said these were no longer human voices, but “the planets revolving around the sun.” Milchael Tilson Thomas won a few Grammies recently for his new recording of Mahler’s Eighth Symphony with the San Francisco Symphony. Naxos’s budget-priced version has gotten stellar reviews as well.
Giuseppe Verdi – Aida (download on iTunes): One of the grandest of all grand operas, most staged productions of this work heavily underline the spectacular elements of the story with lavish sets extolling its exotic setting (ancient Egypt) and huge casts of extras portraying the warring parties. The famous “Triumphal Scene” is something of a show within a show. Here, hundreds of performers — chorus members, dancers, and occasionally (to the dismay of animal rights activists) even horses, lions and an elephant or two! — occupy the stage as the Egyptian victors parade their Ethiopian captives in front of the ecstatic people of Egypt.
Ludwig van Beethoven – Missa Solemnis (buy on Amazon): Running close to 90 minutes, this work is famous for being difficult — and not just for the audience to sit through and comprehend! Chorus members are required to sing long stretches of extremely challenging music, often to the accompaniment of a large orchestra playing at full throttle, and the demands it makes on the performers are akin to training for a marathon. Many amateur choirs cannot hope to master the material, and even the greatest professional choirs continue to find the music daunting. Written at roughly the same time as his Ninth Symphony, the Missa Solemnis stands like Mount Everest amongst choral works, an awe-inspiring, sometimes terrifying, symbol of the power of faith and hope and human possibility.
Richard Wagner – “The Ring Cycle” (buy 2 CD “Ring Excerpts” or
the budget-priced single CD of “Ring Without Words” on Amazon): Clocking in at approximately 16 hours of music, the four myth-inspired operas of Wagner’s “Ring Cycle” come together to make pretty much the largest work of musical art ever created. Countless books have been written to describe what Wagner’s “Ring” is all about, but the truth is, it’s about everything that human beings experience and think about in life: nature (and how man interferes with it), love, loyalty, greed, redemption — the list goes on and on. Though written between 1848 and 1874, today’s listeners will be amazed at how many of our current problems and issues are touched upon. In this digital age, you can buy the whole “Ring” at a budget-price, but a great way to start is to just hear excerpts, which include one of the most famous and viscerally exciting things ever composed: the “Ride of the Valkyries.”
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