This performance and recording, while not ideal, go a good way towards confirming my view that Christus am Oelberge, has more to be said for it than its very infrequent performances in the concert hall might suggest. It is not a masterpiece, for it was Beethoven's first choral work, but there is a good deal of foreshadowing of what was to come; and if it is a chip from the master's workshop, what a workshop and what a worthy chip!
The opus number is misleading since the work was composed about the time of the Second Symphony, which was given at the same concert at which this oratorio had its first performance in 1803. It was written without any of the agonizing that preceded the creation of almost all Beethoven's works—it was completed in about a fortnight. Beethoven found the libretto by Franz Xavier Huber easy to work on, for he had yet to discover that it is a text on the highest level that causes the agonizing. It is also true to say of both composer and poet that neither was helped by an episode in the Bible story that is little more than a pause on Christ's way to Calvary, so that Huber has to pad out his text with an important part for a Seraph and a much lesser part for Peter, not to mention soldiery and a group of youths (tenors) who seem to me to be lily-livered, since they are concerned lest the confrontation between Jesus and the soldiers may get them into trouble.
So why do I like this concoction of a plot? Most of all because there are so many moments when the composer could only be Beethoven. You will note the softly effective timpani strokes pretty often in the Prologue (a very good piece of music in itself), a thought which Beethoven was to use differently, but not to greater effect, in the Violin Concerto, while the first aria of Jesus has an allegro that is redolent of Florestan's aria at the start of the Second Act of Fidelio (and come to think of it, Jesus is here also in a very desperate situation), But the main thing is the energy, the sense of propulsion of much of the music, not to mention the sound of the orchestra. This is already Beethoven, even if he is occasionally a little unsteady on his feet and has not yet got into an assured stride.
This recording starts with the advantage of an excellent singer in the role of Jesus in James Anderson (who would make a splendid Florestan in Fidelio). The Seraph is also well taken by Monica Pick-Hieronimi, who manages her role with skill, even though I thought her a little too closely recorded, which allows her little chance of warmth. The chorus might be softer in their first piece, marked sempre piano, though they show a firm and ringing tone in later, loud, choruses. The Lyon orchestra is good enough to accompany everything well and on the whole, as I implied earlier, Baudo conducts what turns out to be a good performance.'