Customer Reviews

Caldara: Missa Dolorosa - Stabat Mater / René Clemencic

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Antonio Caldara (1670-1736) was another Italian who found his musical wonderland and wrote his best music as "vice-chapelmaster" at the devoutly Catholic and even more devoutly Italianate Hapsburg court in Vienna, arriving in 1716, writing at least 60 operas and 36 oratorios as well as masses and cantatas, making extravagent use of the largest and most virtuosic musical forces in the world at the time, but forever in the shade of Johann Joseph Fux, the Kapellmeister. Of all the Italian Baroque masters, Caldara most resembles JS Bach, or vice versa since Caldara was 15 years older, in his musical manner, showing the same predilection for dense and difficult counterpoint, the same sweeping structural conceptualization, the same instinct for chromatic drama. In fact, if you've ever doubted that Bach was really an Italian named Giovanni Sebastiano, listening to this CD, especially the Missa Dolorosa, may dispel your uncertainty.

While Vivaldi set his Stabat Mater for one voice and Pergolesi his for two, Caldara uses five - two sopranos, alto, tenor and bass - in varying solos, duets, and coros, with elaborate instrumental color. Only the twelfth verse, 'Fac ut animae donatur,' is thoroughly contrapuntal. The Missa Dolorosa, written for the Feast of the Seven Sorrows of Mary in 1735 - newly instituted in the liturgical calendar by Pope Benedict XIII - is wildly chromatic and as 'old-fashioned' in its fugal complexity as anything by Bach, with intricate instrumental obbligatos galore and with four excellent soloists SATB. Do, please, pay attention to the bassoon passages in the Gloria and elsewhere!

The combined forces of the Swiss Radio Chorus, under Diego Fasolis, and Aura Musicale Budapest, under Rene Clemencic, with Fasolis conducting, perform these two massive compositions with total technical security and robust expressiveness. This CD is a tremendous bargain from Naxos, the CD buyer's best friend.

Naxos deserves our gratitude for its wide and adventurous repertoire, and while I cannot be as keen as the previous reviewer about the quality of this music, I am glad to have had the chance to hear it. The big let down for me with this CD, however, is the performance, especially since I have always trusted the name Rene Clemencic as a guarantee of at least a certain level of quality. There must be a back story to explain how this fine conductor got tied to the present group of village musicians: the soloists are weak, the choir and instrumentalists uncertain. Furthermore, Clemencic's decision to double the choir parts with brass -- while it may be supported by arguments of authenticity, or it may rather have been a practical decision, given the choristers at hand -- produces a disagreeable and unbalanced texture. I would avoid this CD, unless there is a particular curiosity about this composer.