Franz Schmidt - Book with Seven Seals

All Music Guide

Based on the biblical -Book of Revelations and the events surrounding the Apocalypse, Franz Schmidt's The Book with Seven Seals is a most powerful testament to the declining romantic period in classical music. This solemn and steady oratorio, composed a year before Schmidt's death, focuses on the battle in heaven and is centered around a very basic four note bass line with the commanding Rene Pape in the role of God. There are some intriguing uses of organ solos, deep silences and suspended or abrupt shifts between sections, serving to heighten the sense of catastrophic sequences. This is the first studio recording of The Book with Seven Seals, and from its gradual start, to its brash, thunderous hallelujah chorus ending, this entire piece stands up quite well among modern oratorios.

- Roxanne Blanford, All Music Guide