Das Mirakel: a Humpedinck first recording
Well, who we have here is one miracle, one mystery, and one mystery play. Humperdinck collaborated with Max Reinhardt on Das Mirakel, based a 1911 mystery play by Karl Gustav Vollmöller. The mystery? The play itself is lost. But the music isn't. And Humpserdinck's setting is of a somewhat (early) Wagneian bent
The play was premiered in 1911; Max Reinhard made a film in 1912. To give you flavour of the film, here is the final scene with Humperdinck's music (very definitely an earlier recording than on the new Capriccio release!):
You can also see the film, spread over seven YouTubes, without music. Here's the first (follow the hyperlinked URL to local the remaining six on the site, or just click below if you just want to sample the first segment):
Unlike Hänsel und Gretel, Das Mirakel has pronounced choral scenes: performances in the early years had huge casts and led to a performance at the Salzburg Festival in 1925.
The various movements are tiled exactly like film "chapters". There is something of the majesty of the Grail scenes in Parsifal to "Megildis challenges the Mother of God". The second disc, less than half an hour. begins with a solo voice, pure, joined by.music cast between Gegorian chant and the Humpedinck of Hänsel und Gretel mode ("Christmas Eve in the Convent"):
Humperdinck is brilliant with magical effecrs - as we saw in Hänsel and the suspension of reality required for.fairy tale - and we hear his again in "Transformation of the Virgin Statue - The Miracle":
The gradual emergence of the chorus in "Entrance of the Nuns and Ave Maria" is superbly managed here, the ladies of the Berlin Radio Choir expertly managed by the engineers:
Again, Wagner rears his head in the opening of the "Schlußchor" (Closing Chous) of Act 1:
.. while the ensuing Interlude is pure ballet music: "Entrance and Waltz of the Minstrel":
The second ac begins with children and a carol: Es is in rose' entsprugen"; it's amazing how that lightness moves to the Wagnerian gloom of"Die Heilig Nacht bricht an" - as if nightfall draws a curtain that then allows in chain (spiritual) radiance. Humperdinck is.master of orchestral colour in the sense of brightness and darkness, and in this he can tell a story (mostly without words) to perfection.
An invaluable first recording, and a great way to flesh out Humperdinck beyond Hänsel und Gretel. Recommended,
Available on Amazon here.
