Quartetto e coro dei maggi, for chorus & orchestra, H. 59

• Date: 1832
• Composer: Hector Berlioz
• Period: Romantic (1820-1869)

Review

The Dutch pianist and composer, Eduard Silas (1827 - 1909), wished to dedicate his oratorio, Joash, to Berlioz, and to name him godfather to his son. In his reply, 3 March 1860, Berlioz gracefully accepted the dedication but refused to stand godfather, noting that "I neither believe in nor profess the Catholic religion, I even protest that I don't believe in it, so in that sense I'm a Protestant. The truth is, I'm a Nothingist, like so many excellent Americans. Only my Nothingism isn't a religion." His atheism is a constant undertow in the Memoirs and his correspondence. And when the mood was on him, he was fond of quoting Macbeth's "Life's but a walking shadow… a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing." And yet several of his greatest works are implicit with religious awe - the Requiem and Te Deum, for instance - and rife with a rapt prehension of the mystical, as in the final moments of L'Enfance du Christ. It was a mood which settled on him early. Among the works given by the young composer at a concert of 26 May 1828, Berlioz includes not only the Resurrexit of his Messe solenelle - which nearly two decades later furnished material for the Tuba mirum of the Requiem - but a Marche religieuse des mages, now lost. When, as winner of the Prix de Rome, Berlioz was obliged to send the fruits of his leisure back to the sponsoring Institute in Paris, he almost certainly drew upon the latter piece for the Quartetto e coro dei maggi. The autograph is lost, but the work, in a copyist's hand, is dated "Roma 1832." The Institute committee called to evaluate these submissions found - forecasting a strain of criticism which would cling to Berlioz's originality throughout his career - that it "is not, properly speaking, a complete work; it seems no more than a preparation. In this sort of prelude, we find to our regret little melody, few firm ideas, a pretentious format, a total absence of that sentiment of unification." The committee's puzzlement is not to be wondered at, for the Quartetto e coro dei maggi is similar in mood, and even in some vaulting phrases, to the Chant de la fête de pâques - the Easter chorus - from the Huit Scènes de Faust composed over 1828/29. The fugal writing transcends the rules to expressive effect, and the piece ends in an aureole of string sonority. If it hasn't quite the ecstatic afflatus of the Chant de la fête de pâques, it is nevertheless effectively moving. ~ Adrian Corleonis, Rovi

Albums with Complete Performances of the Work

Title	Date
Berlioz: L'Enfance Du Christ	2000

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