Passion and Lament: Choral Masterworks of the 17th Century = SALAMONE ROSSI: Hashirim Asher Lish’Lomo (The Songs of Solomon); FRANZ VON BIBER: Stabat Mater; GIACOMO CARISSIMI: Historia di Jephte – Bach Sinfonia/ Sinfonia Voci/ Daniel Abraham, conductor – Dorian sono luminus 90913, 55:53 [Distr. by Naxos] *****:
This superb disc merits about the highest praise I can give it, great singing and playing, and a program that is both logical and instructive. Let’s start with the Carissimi, as it is easily the most recorded (about 16 competing versions on the market) and perhaps the greatest work here. The story of Jephte taken from the eleventh chapter of the Book of Judges is not a pretty one. The hero upon returning from battle takes an oath to sacrifice to God the first person whom he runs into. Bad news for the most excited person at his victory I suppose, which in this case happens to be none other than his own daughter whom he spies immediately! She, still a virgin, is given two months to bewail her virginity and the fact that she will never bear children, before the axe falls. That’s it, in a nutshell, though of course I skimp on details, which are handled in brilliant fashion by the composer as he carves a musico-dramatic arch out of the action that ends with one of the most famous choruses ever written—and one of the most beautiful. You will recognize it as Handel borrowed it for his oratorio Sampson. There are also some stunningly effective laments to be heard here, and the whole thing belongs in any serious library. By the way, Handel (who also set the story) and Mozart (in Idomeneo) both allow Jephte’s daughter to live at the end—no such luck here.
If you had ever wondered what Jewish late-Renaissance—early-Baroque music sounded like, well here is your answer. And it is—not that much different from the other types of Christian music being composed at the time, which took me completely by surprise. I don’t really know why it threw me so much, as even Russian Orthodox music written in Ukraine at the time of Palestrina sounds an awful lot like him as well. But Salamone Rossi (c. 1570-1628) was active in Mantua composing for Jewish and non-Jewish theatrical productions and was big on madrigals, sinfonias, chamber music, and works for Jewish services, among which we find these “Songs of Solomon”. Apparently there was a Venetian rabbi, Leo Modena, who was rather forward looking and with whom Rossi collaborated on this work. There was a controversy at the time about using “art” music in services, and Rossi was fearful of being challenged on it. Odd how some things cross religious experiences, as Palestrina went through this in the Catholic church as well as any number of Russian Orthodox and Byzantine composers—and some are still going through it. But these songs are the first printed examples of Hebrew art music, and worthy they are, all taken from the psalms – except the first poem of praise by Matthew ben Isaac of Bologna. This is gorgeous stuff.
Biber’s Stabat mater dolorosa (“There stood the mother grieving”) is from a thirteenth century sequence of the Roman Catholic liturgy, a powerful and moving text that has been set hundreds of times by an equal number of composers. The text speaks of the Virgin Mary’s lamentation at the foot of the cross beholding her son. It was stricken from the liturgy by the Council of Trent but put back 200 years later in a series of reforms. Biber, who did very well in Salzburg, is usually known for his violin music, but his choral music is equally radiant and offers an entirely different look at a composer whom you thought you knew well. This piece is less than ten minutes long, but its concentrated pathos and polyphonic majesty—albeit in only four parts—demonstrates his liturgical finesse and sense of pithy drama.
You won’t find a duplication of this program anywhere, and as such it is self-recommending. Those wanting an alternative to the Carissimi would do well to check out the Brilliant Classics issue with Paul McCreesh and the Gabrieli Consort and Players, while the Naxos recording of miscellanea with the Consortium Carissimi has garnered excellent reviews. Both are cheaper than this disc but this one is unique, and neither of the others is better played and sung than this one, recorded at the Church of the Ascension and St. Agnes in Washington, D.C. Texts and translations included, thank you very much.
— Steven Ritter
