Apart from
Mendelssohn's Elijah and Paulus,
Brahms' German Requiem, and
Beethoven's Missa Solemnis, the undisputed champ among nineteenth century oratorios is
Franz Liszt's gigantic Christus. Composed in just four years between 1859 and 1863 on an unwieldy libretto by the Princess
Carolyne von Sayn-Wittgenstein, Christus may have been intended as
Liszt's answer to
Handel's Messiah, and at least in length -- three hours -- it is certainly a comparable effort. Christus, like nearly all of
Liszt's music that does not involve the piano, has never caught on in any measure comparable to the works of
Mendelssohn,
Beethoven,
Brahms, or
Handel mentioned above. Nevertheless, Christus is occasionally revived, and it should be, because
Liszt put some of the very best of himself into this composition. While Princess
Sayn-Wittgenstein's text may be ponderous, the music never is; the orchestration is far more assured and accomplished than in either of
Liszt's symphonies, and the choral writing is exquisite.
Liszt wrote only one opera at the age of 14, and it was such a bomb that he resolved never to write another; Christus is useful in that it directly demonstrates what it was about
Liszt's music that inspired
Wagner so much, in a mechanism of delivery similar to that of opera. Despite its relative neglect, Christus is a major Romantic work.