Fasch, Benevoli, Mendelssohn : A Quattro Cori Musique pour 16 Voix

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Carl Friedrich Christian Fasch (1736-1800): Missa a 16 voci in quattro cori - Orazio Benevoli (1605-1672): Missa “In diluvio aquarum multarum”* - Félix Mendelssohn (1809-1847): Hora est / * World premiere recording In 1783, the musician and writer Johann Friedrich Reichardt (1752-1814) traveled to Italy, where he believed the cradle of the most accomplished music was located. He was dissatisfied with the situation in Germany, particularly in Berlin. The boys' choirs that at the time performed public singing in churches, theaters, streets, and squares in the Prussian capital were in a more than lamentable state. "Not a single choir can be heard singing with a pure sound and in tune." He thought, like his contemporary, the publisher and publicist Johann Carl Friedrich Rellstab (1759-1813), that fundamental reforms were necessary. What reasonable argument justified excluding women and prohibiting them from singing in choirs in front of an audience? In the year of the revolution, 1789, voices were raised insisting that mixed choirs be created and institutionalized. This idea developed in society, gained momentum, and allowed for a high quality; the new choirs asserted themselves as the refined antithesis to men's choirs with a somewhat rough patriotic repertoire. Reichardt, who as a composer greatly contributed to elevating the German popular style, appreciated the ancient sacred music of Italy; he knew what it could bring, particularly in raising the level of artistic taste. He brought back from his trip a mass for 16 voices by the Roman baroque composer Orazio Benevoli (1605-1672), a master of the monumental baroque style of the Eternal City.