Customer Reviews

Bassani: La Tromba della Divina Misericordia

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If you read "oratorio" and your mind runs to joan Sutherland singing haendel, please, don't buy this record, because you won't like it.
This oratorio, written in a period in which oratorios were still a way to teach people stuff about religion, has a narrative content which is not actually a story: it is much more a moral tale about soul saviour and benefit of prayer. it is not a "sacred opera". Also, even if "italian" should recall the "belcanto" idea, you'd better think that we're in the end of the XVII century, so more near to Monteverdi than to the neapolitans.
What i found amazing in this CD is that you can understand every single word which is said by the singers: a aspect frequently overlooked by conductors which prefer to focus on music forgetting the text (as, for example, in "la morte delusa" recording by Tubery's "La Fenice", where everything is perfect but the word). In this case, if you can understand some italian, you can enjoy the whole oratorio even without opening the booklet.
Among the singers, a great performance by the alto Elena Carzaniga (I've been listening "Deh, movetevi a pietà" for 2 or 300 times in the last week): sadly the mezzosoprano Anna Bessi - who has only arias and not recitativos - seem to be somehow technically worse than her colleagues, even if she describes pretty well the emotions of the "saved soul" and of the "damned soul" (listen to the astonoshing passacaglia in the second part, "stillate pur stillate").
I had never heard about Stilmoderno before: their instrumental playing is striking. A great violin work built on a solid continuo base. The ideas are clear and the group really knows what they're playing. Surfing their site I could see this is their first recording and I could also enjoy other performances available here and there on the net. Hope to hear more by them in the future.
Conclusion: an exciting rediscovery, a promising new ensemble, a good introduction to the oratorio world on the end of XVII century and also a nice try to make audiences understand how was the world of singing before the 1700's italian belcanto styles. Bravo!