Morte e sepoltura di Christo - 2 CD

Description

With Morte e sepoltura di Christo by Antonio Caldara, released by Glossa in the wake of the recent album devoted to the violin concertos that Vivaldi composed late in life, Fabio Biondi returns to the Italian oratorio, one of his specialties. The Venetians Caldara and Vivaldi were contemporaries but followed very different paths shaped by their careers. Caldara worked for a long time in Mantua and Rome before obtaining the post of Vizekapellmeister at the Viennese court of Charles VI of the Holy Roman Empire. During the last 20 years of his life, Caldara composed a large number of oratorios (and operas), thickening his counterpoint and using the wide range of instrumental colors offered to him by the imperial court orchestra. Written for Lent in 1724, Morte e sepoltura follows the typical bipartite structure of the period and is based on a text that includes a series of reflections by the characters who took part, in one way or another, in the Passion of Christ. We should also note the importance and number of arias with obbligato instruments. Fabio Biondi conducts the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra, with which he has worked assiduously since 2006 in the early music programs of this Norwegian ensemble. As for the vocal team assembled by Biondi, it consists of a selection of brilliant soloists surrounding Maria Grazia Schiavo and Silvia Frigato. The essay accompanying the disc is by the foremost expert on Caldara, musicologist Brian W Pritchard.