Julian Allen asks for opinions on Pftizner's Palestrina and Schmidt's Buch
mit sieben Siegeln:

>If people are familiar with Palestrina - what do they think of it? I found
>it quite hard going and perhaps a little montonous even thought the cast on
>my Kubelik recording is very starry.  Did anyone see it at the ROH Covent
>Garden some time back.  I missed it.  Perhaps it is better live.

I'm not wild about it, but then I have problems with late 19th-century
post-Wagnerian music.  It seems like just so much noodling around at the
keyboard.  Never seen the opera live.

>I think the Franz Schmidt is altogether superior with overwhelming
>choruses.  It is a setting of the Revelation of St John the Divine.

I've reviewed the Schmidt at the following URL:

   http://www.classical.net/music/recs/reviews/e/emi56660a.html

Steve Schwartz