At less than 38 minutes, this is a paltry disc indeed. On the other hand I find almost 38 minutes of this intense, emotionally charged and overbearing work almost more than I can stomach. It's a decidedly charmless piece of music but its very intensity has a certain hypnotic quality, and there is no doubting the extraordinary power of Burt's writing. That power is fully exploited in this vivid live recording, tautly directed by Richard Edlinger whose iron grip ensures there is never a vague moment or a second's loss of focus. The impressive United Philharmonic is a truly multinational orchestra set up in 1994 to present programmes which 'not only meet artistic priorities, but have extra-musical themes that chime with its ideals of international unity'. Its playing here positively crackles with energy while the trio of soloists and the Antifonia Choir, established to perform contemporary music, find no terrors in the face of this daunting score.
Born in London in 1926, Francis Burt has spent most of his professional life in Vienna, where he developed a friendship with Manfred von Mautner Markhof, former president of the Vienna Concert Hall Society. Und GOtt der HErr Sprach (the eccentric lettering is lifted direct from the Lutheran Bible) was originally composed for a church celebration of Markhof's golden wedding, but his death intervened and Burt re-worked the original score for concert use. The texts, drawn from the Old Testament, deal with the value, importance and, yes, intimate pleasures of marriage.
The music, it must be said, seems to find the prospect of 50 years' of marriage rather more daunting and cheerless than did the Old Testament scribes.'