TELEMANN: Deus judicium tuum; HANDEL: Dixit Dominus –Yeree Suh, soprano/ Ingrid Perruche, soprano/ Britta Schwarz, alto/ Markus Schafer, tenor/ Alain Buet, bass/ Arnaud Richard, bass/ Arsys Bourgogne/ Harmonie Universelle/ Pierre Cao, conductor – Eloquentia 0916, 51:15 **** [Distr. by Harmonia mundi]:
Handel’s early Italian lightning-bolt Dixit Dominus is a piece that has had many successful recordings. The young German stirred a potboiler of sunny Catholic stew for the locals which recipe has now become one of the composer’s most popular works. Just a little while back I reviewed a Hyperion release that was very good, but this one, I believe, tops it. The orchestra mass is excellent, using a decently large body of strings, as does the chorus use a contingent of 29 really tuned-in singers. The playing is sprightly and proficient, and downright exciting, easily recommendable as a primary recording.
And the ordering of the program, with Handel following Telemann, is also good, for a side by side comparison of these works definitely leaves the Parisian German in the dust. Oh, this is not a bad work by any means, the prolific composer creating his setting of Psalm 71 for the Concerts Spirituel, no doubt to the delight of his listeners seated comfortably among the pleasantries of the Tuileries, hearing with rapt attention about the righteousness of the Almighty and His judgments. Well, I guess you had to be there. But I do indeed like the work; it’s just that Handel’s is superior. Telemann of course, who wrote this piece at the age of 56, was by then considered Germany’s greatest composer, though that would not last too long, and only sustained itself briefly past his lifetime. Yet for his entire many-faceted career, it is quite amazing that there are indeed so many quality pieces among the minion of notes-on-paper. This one has its moments, many in fact, though you will not have the exhilaration that the Handel provides.
Something interesting for period fanciers to chew on however: in the notes to this excellent release we read from the autobiography of the composer, who says when in Paris “I set Psalm 71 as a large-scale motet for five voices and various instruments, which was performed twice in three days at the Concert Spirituel by almost a hundred select participants” (italics mine).
When will honesty in assessing the actual size of performing ensembles in the Baroque period, and the true desires of the composers of this period enter into the contemporary historically informed performances handbook? Here we get about half of what Telemann had, and it is all played to the hilt and rendered with vigor and love. So let’s get the other stuff right next time!
— Steven Ritter
