Christus am Oelberge (‘Christ on the Mount of Olives’) is a curious piece, reflecting much that was characteristic of Beethoven at the time he composed it, 1803, but never managing to cohere into a satisfactory whole. A good deal of it is operatic in manner. Christ is a sorrowing tenor, quite eloquently handled here by Steve Davislim but, when the music offers little in the way of real meditation, with melancholy and pathos rather than anything reflecting a deeper anguish. When the Seraph appears in the person of Simone Kermes, accurate but rather steely of tone, there is a distinct note of the Queen of the Night arriving; and Elke Wilm Schulte can do nothing with words such as ‘lass meine Rache kuhlen’, set to sizzling orchestral figures and bounding vocal arpeggios, except deliver them as if he were an operatic villain at work on a vengeance aria. He warms to his work a little more in the Trio with Jesus and the Seraph, which, together with a strong Introduction, is in many ways the most interesting part of the work. The operatic nature of proceedings extends even to the entry of the soldiers, which suggests the opera-comique of Beethoven’s youth. It is an unsatisfactory piece, and Christoph Spering does well to animate matters with lively playing from Das Neue Orchester. The recording is clear but rather strident.'