De Profundis: Miserere: Requiem [Import]

Zelenka (Artist), Il Fondamento (Artist), Dombrecht (Artist) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (May 15, 2000)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import
• Label: Passacaille
• ASIN: B00004U1BN
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,708,263 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Gabriel's Trumpet ..., September 27, 2011

By 

Giordano Bruno (Wherever I am, I am.) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: De Profundis: Miserere: Requiem (Audio CD)

... will be playing music by Jan Dismas Zelenka on the Day of Doom! I'm sure of that, since no other composer has ever expressed Awe and Majesty as effectively as Zelenka. The spiritual fervor of Zelenka's music is almost scary; he makes Bach sound like an agnostic and Bruckner like a bon vivant. Nearly all of Zelenka's mature compositions were intended for the Catholic liturgy, so that though he was a Czech composing in Germany, his texts are entirely Latin except, I think, for two oratorios in Italian. Given his first musical education at a Jesuit college in Prague, Zelenka spent most of his life in Dresden at the Court of Augustus the Strong, who had 'converted' to Catholicism in order to reign as King of Poland. Zelenka's religious gravity may have been too massive for Dresden, as he was notoriously shunted aside by the musical establishment there in favor of the elegant and worldly Hasse. Augustus the Strong was reputed to crush metal plates in his bare hands but he was a wimp in comparison to the Might expressed in the music of his "Royal Chapel Composer."

What makes Zelenka's music so majestic? It's both mass and momentum, serenity and restlessness, densely intellectual counterpoint propelled by relentlessly pulsing rhythm, and both illuminated by vocal virtuosity and instrumental color, like prismatic flashes of light through the stained glass of a dark Gothic cathedral. Zelenka was truly Bach's only rival at contrapuntal intricacy. His mastery of chromaticism and affective modulation was unsurpassed, so characteristic of his music that any Zelenka composition is almost instantly recognizable as his. He was a genius of instrumentation, able to make a half-dozen strings, two oboes and a bassoon, and possibly a pair of trumpets or flutes sound like a monumental orchestra. There's always a tension in his music between 'baroque' variety and 'classical' unity, with more of the latter, to my ears, than Telemann or Haydn achieved.

Zelenka's time has come. After roughly 350 years of rejection and neglect, Zelenka was rediscovered in the 1950/60s through his early instrumental pieces, especially the sonatas for two oboes and bassoon, which are ironically his least characteristic compositions. Bassoonists have ample reason to adore Zelenka; nobody has ever written more exciting parts for bassoon, and that's as true of his most profound liturgical music as of his suites and dances. But the explosion of musical creativity and excellence in Saxony and the Czech Republic in the last two decades has fostered a nationalistic pride in the greatness of Zelenka. Nearly half of his surviving music has now been well performed and well recorded by 'historically informed' ensembles using original instruments. The best of these recordings are, in fact, by Czech singers and ensembles, particularly "Ensemble Inégal" conducted by Adam Viktora, "Musica Florea" conducted by Marek Strynci, and "Collegium 1704" conducted by Václav Luks. Unfortunately and unpardonably, the CDs of these ensembles are not readily available on amazon in the USA, so one needs to import them from amazon.de (Germany).

But there's good news! This 1998 recording, by the Belgian ensemble Il Fondamento, with Paul Dombrecht conducting, is both extremely well performed and brilliantly representative of Zelenka's greatness. The 'Miserere' of 1738 is probably the most often performed of Zelenka's works; the striding chords with which it commences are unforgettably poignant. The Requiem dates from 1731, while the 'De Profundis' is the only surviving movement of a commemorative service Zelenka composed after the death of his own father in 1724. The two works have deep affinities, being remarkably concise in structure yet replete with musical ideas and surprises. This is a perfect 'concert' with which to introduce yourself to Zelenka, if you are a neophyte, as well as a treasure for the confirmed Zelenka adulator.