In 1959, The Deluge, a cantata for soprano, contralto and instrumental ensemble to a text, derived from the writings of Leonardo da Vinci by the Soviet film director Sergei Eisenstein, received a highly successful premiere. It was composed by Alexander Goehr, who has died aged 92, using the challenging 12-note idiom pioneered by Arnold Schoenberg, the Austrian modernist of the first half of the century, as his starting point.
However, a second Eisenstein cantata – Sutter’s Gold, for baritone, chorus and orchestra – prompted a crisis for Goehr when it was mounted at the Leeds festival two years later. The amateur chorus could not cope with its demands, bringing home to the composer the disappointment felt by performers who were bent on making music purely for the pleasure of doing so.
