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René Jacobs Archive

CAVALIERI: Rappresentazione di Anima e di Corpo – complete opera – Soloists/Staatsoperchor/Akademi fur Alte Musik Berlin/Jacobs – HM

CAVALIERI: Rappresentazione di Anima e di Corpo – complete opera – Soloists/Staatsoperchor/Akademi fur Alte Musik Berlin/Jacobs – HM

by | Jun 17, 2016 | Classical CD Reviews

Jacobs gives us a definitive account of a very important opera. CAVALIERI: Rappresentazione di Anima e di Corpo – Marie-Claude Chappuis (Anima)/ Johannes Weisser (Corpo)/ Gyula Orendt (Tempo, Consiglio)/ Mark Milhofer (Inteletto, Piacere)/ Marcos Fink (Mondo, Secondo Compagno di Piacere, Anima dannata)/ Staatsopernchor/ Concerto vocale/ Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin/ René Jacobs – Harmonia mundi HMC902200/01, 1:32:52 ****: It strikes me as a little amusing to hear of this work, supposedly pre-opera and oratorio, as a “music drama”. For most people, it was Wagner who invented the term! Yet if we can still refer to his later works as operas—and we do—it is with much assurance that we can call this piece an opera as well, even though it predates when we commonly use the term. Musicology, after all, is not a precise science, and just because the attribution has been given to Peri and Caccini doesn’t necessarily make it so. However, musicological pickings aside, this work, premiered in February 1600, is a dialogue between Soul and Body, with other allegorical characters and angels and souls in heaven and hell that uses chorus, singers, and a large and colorful orchestra. There are almost-arias, ariosos, instrumental interludes, and generally exciting choral […]

BACH: St. John Passion – Soloists/RIAS Ch. Choir/ Academy for Old Music Berlin/ Rene Jacobs – Harmonia mundi (2 discs)

BACH: St. John Passion – Soloists/RIAS Ch. Choir/ Academy for Old Music Berlin/ Rene Jacobs – Harmonia mundi (2 discs)

by | Jun 6, 2016 | SACD & Other Hi-Res Reviews

Outstanding in every facet, this could be, just maybe, the one to own. BACH: St. John Passion (1749 + 1725 Appendix) – Werner Gura, tenor/ Sumhae Im, sop/ Benno Schachtner, alto/ Sebastian Kohlhepp, tenor/ Johannes Weisser, bass/ RIAS Chamber Choir/ Academy for Old Music Berlin/ Rene Jacobs – Harmonia mundi multichannel SACD (2 discs) + DVD HMC 802236.37, 2:15:20 [Distr. by Harmonia mundi/PIAS] *****: This is the version completed right at the end of Bach’s life, with the powerful and familiarly haunting “Herr, Herr, Herr” in the opening chorus. I mention this because there is an appendix from the 1725 version that includes some numbers also rather popular but not in the regular performing version presented here, and the opening of that earlier edition is absent the aforementioned chorus. However, in a generous and wonderfully intelligent decision by Harmonia mundi, they have included three free downloads, one of the 1749 version given in toto here, and also the complete 1725 edition as well, both offered in a high def 24 bit FLAC file, about ten times the size of a normal 128kbps MP3 file. This is a great treat, and you can even give the third download to a friend […]