SOME UNFAMILIAR PIECES BY FAMILIAR COMPOSERS

We are already deeply into the second phase of the compact-disc era: The classical “standards” having now been recorded many times over in the new technology, lesser-known material, sometimes genuine esoterica, is appearing in startling quantity. For the purposes of the present column, let’s stay with unfamiliar music by familiar composers--material that had been rapidly disappearing from the LP catalogue during the final years of that technology’s reign.

Performances and recordings of Beethoven’s sacred oratorio “Christus am Oelberge” (“Christ on the Mount of Olives”) are hardly commonplace. It was written in 1801, around the time of the Second Symphony and the “Tempest” Sonata. Unlike them, however, it is a pompous, halfhearted response to a grudgingly given commission. Characteristically, and much to the composer’s annoyance, the hourlong oratorio remained an audience and critical favorite throughout his lifetime.

It is difficult, however, to believe that the forces assembled for the CD debut of “Christus” (Harmonia Mundi 905181) agree with Beethoven’s and posterity’s negative judgment.

Conductor Serge Baudo leads his very fine National Chorus and Orchestra of Lyon, clarifying textures and projecting more tension than one imagined the music could contain. The unfamiliar soloists are also excellent: soprano Monica Pick-Hieronimi, tenor James Anderson and bass Victor von Halem all bring polished vocalism and sound dramatic instincts to what had hitherto seemed thankless tasks.

If “Christus am Oelberge” reveals a mature composer working well below peak inspiration, Beethoven’s set of three Piano Quartets, dating from his 15th year, exude the youthful fire of genius-in-the-making.

Beethoven’s piano quartets are more often than not accompanied piano sonatas rather than true ensemble pieces, demanding a pianist of fluency, uncommon spirit and rhythmic drive. The present edition, on the small British Meridian label (84098, CD only), has as its hero one Anthony Goldstone, about whom the liner notes tell us nothing tangible beyond the fact that he is British and that he performs frequently with the Cummings String Trio--which, in fact, he does so superlatively well on this very recording.

Everyone has heard the overture to Beethoven’s “Creatures of Promethus,” the ballet score that predates “Christus am Oelberge” by a few months.

Perhaps “Prometheus” doesn’t work as a ballet or, because of its fragmentary construction, even as a concert work. But its well-contrasted melodies, lively rhythms and fascinating scoring (Beethoven, we discover, wrote sensitively for the harp) make it a natural for home listening. Notably so in the stylish and superbly executed performance by New York’s conductorless Orpheus Chamber Orchestra (Deutsche Grammophon 419 608).

The spirit of Beethoven is present but hardly dominant in recorded rarities by Schubert and Mendelssohn. The former is represented by a lovely program of sacred choral pieces (Capriccio 10096, CD only). A personal favorite here is the 18-year-old composer’s Offertorium in C, with its pair of swooping obbligato flutes: purest Mozart, with Schubertian embellishments. This and nine other short works are neatly done by the Chorus and Orchestra of the (East) Berlin Radio under Dietrich Knothe, with strong solo contributions from soprano Magdalena Hajossyova and tenor Peter Schreier.

The Mendelssohn piece is a “Magnificat,” written when the composer was all of 13 and stylistically more beholden to J.S. Bach than to Beethoven.

Unearthed as recently as 1984--and first performed then by the participants in the present recording, the (East) Berlin Singakademie and Staatskapelle, again under Knothe--the score for much of its 25-minute duration is dramatically expressive and richly scored. There are the trumpets and drums of Bach’s “Magnificat,” augmented by lively turns for flute and oboe. The solo vocal parts are written with comparable suavity, but are compromised here by a trio of rather scrawny voices.