The Book of Revelation resounds in concert, courtesy of the towering but tragic Austro-Hungarian composer Franz Schmidt (1874–1939). His legacy beyond Austria suffers on account of his supposed association with the Third Reich, but the case against him is flimsy. True, the Nazis feted him, an already dying man, going so far as to commission him to write a jingoistic German Cantata, which he did not complete. Das Buch Mit Sieben Siegeln (The Book of Seven Seals) premiered in 1938, on the eve of Apocalypse. On the eve of what feels like another Apocalypse, the great drama, sweep, and beauty of the work may once again feel all too timely. Hats off to Fabio Luisi for this rare opportunity to hear Schmidt’s masterpiece in America. The excellent tenor Paul Appleby sings the central part of the narrator, St. John the Divine. The bass Franz-Josef Selig delivers the brief but crucial pronouncements of God. —Matthew Gurewitsch