Antonio VIVALDI
Musica Sacra Vol 1 Sabat Mater RV 621, Clarae stellae, scintillate
RV 625 & concertos RV 556, 544a, 579 & sonata RV
130
Concerto Italiano directed
by Rinaldo Alessandrini
Sara Mingardo, contralto
Opus III OPS 30-261
[70:46]
Crotchet
This disc is both volume one in a series of recordings of Vivaldi's scared
music, though the album which would appear to be volume 2 (which I also review
on Classical Music on the Web, drops the numbering entirely, setting for
the title Gloria Magnificat) and also vol. 7 in a series entitled
Tesori del Piemonte. A recipe for confusion if ever there was one.
Here Rinaldo Alessandrini quite rightly reverts from the erroneous modern
idea that sacred music must necessarily be music which sets a religious text,
going back to the earlier notion that any music composed for performance
as part of a church service can that sense at least be considered sacred.
This then is more a re-creation of music as might have been heard in various
services in Vivaldi's time. Anyone hoping for a programme of entirely vocal
music may be disappointed, for there are three concertos and a sonata besides
the motet Clarae stellae, scintillate RV 625 and the title work, the
Sabat Mater RV 621. The instrumental works will neither shock nor
surprise, other perhaps than as being considered sacred music in the first
place. These are chamber performances, small in scale, clear in texture and
detail. Very attractive in their own right, but not enough to make this album
essential.
Just as Concerto Italiano bring considerable attack and drama to their
Gloria, so contralto Sara Mingardo brings greater emotional involvement
and intensity to the vocal works than has recently been the case with
performances of Vivaldi. Mingardo treads a middle path between the utter
beauty of Emma Kirkby (for instance Opera Arias and Sinfonias - Hyperion
CDA66745) and the at times near histrionics of Cecilia Bartoli (The Vivaldi
Album - Decca 446 569-2). There is a controlled emotional power with
is effective in Clarae stellae, scintillate and stunning in
the Sabat Mater. Where so often this work is transformed into beautiful
melancholy by a countertenor, Sara Mingardo restores the music to reality,
never allowing us to forget that this is the voice (at one step removed)
of a woman who has just seen her son savagely murdered by perhaps the most
brutal 'civilisation' ever to dominate the world. This is Mary's song at
the foot of Christ's Cross, and in this performance we are usefully reminded
in a way that no male singer ever can of the sheer horror and despair of
the historical event from a mother's perspective. The rest of the album is
fine, but Mingardo's harrowing characterisation makes it essential and arguably
the finest Sabat Mater in the current catalogue. Other than a really
nasty buzz of peak distortion on the left channel at 1:26 in track 21, this
is a very fine release indeed.
Gary S. Dalkin
