“Christus am Ölberge, Op. 85 (Christ on the Mount of Olives), is Beethoven's only oratorio. It is one of the composer's least-performed major works, and aside from a few historically oriented performances, even recordings have been sparse in the 21st century. However, Sir Simon Rattle, in this live London Symphony Orchestra performance from 2019, gives the work a fresh look and makes a good case for it; in Rattle's hands, Beethoven seems to be wrestling with the same issues, musical and dramatic, as in the opera Fidelio, Op. 72, as both works were revised several times. Christus am Ölberge is a curiosity: an oratorio about Jesus Christ that cuts off before the Crucifixion and Resurrection. Instead, the triumphal climax of the story depicts Christ accepting his fate. This is a complicated set of emotions that Beethoven's librettist, Franz Xaver Huber, did not catch elegantly. Beethoven was dissatisfied with both the libretto and the patchwork attempts made to repair it. The chorus splits up into subgroups in an unconvincing way, but the humanistic understanding of Christ is pure Beethoven, and Rattle and the LSO give an energetic reading, influenced by Rattle's operatic background, that foregrounds this aspect and ties the work together. They're aided by an intense performance by tenor Pavol Breslik as Christ, together with bass David Soar as Petrus and Elsa Dreisig, appropriately delicate as an angel. The live performance context, too, helps the work come alive. Listeners who haven't given this oratorio a spin for a while will want to check this performance out.”

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