MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2024
60,000 reviews
... and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here Acte Prealable Polish CDs
 

Presto Music CD retailer
 
Founder: Len Mullenger                                    Editor in Chief:John Quinn             


CD REVIEW

Some items
to consider

new MWI
Current reviews

old MWI
pre-2023 reviews

paid for
advertisements

Acte Prealable Polish recordings

Forgotten Recordings
Forgotten Recordings
All Forgotten Records Reviews

TROUBADISC
Troubadisc Weinberg- TROCD01450

All Troubadisc reviews


FOGHORN Classics

Alexandra-Quartet
Brahms String Quartets

All Foghorn Reviews


All HDTT reviews


Songs to Harp from
the Old and New World


all Nimbus reviews



all tudor reviews


Follow us on Twitter


Editorial Board
MusicWeb International
Founding Editor
   
Rob Barnett
Editor in Chief
John Quinn
Contributing Editor
Ralph Moore
Webmaster
   David Barker
Postmaster
Jonathan Woolf
MusicWeb Founder
   Len Mullenger

alternatively
CD: Crotchet   AmazonUK  AmazonUS

 

Domenico CIMAROSA (1749-1801)
Dixit Dominus (1797)
Cinzia Rissone (soprano), Sylvia Rottensteiner (mezzo), Gregory Bonfatti (tenor), I Musici Cantori Choir, Trento, Voci Roveretane, Orchestra Haydn di Bolzano e Trento/Fabio Pirona
rec. 12-15 April 2003, Haydn Auditorium, Bozen
Text and translation included
CPO 999 988-2 [54:20]
Experience Classicsonline

Psalm 110 - of which the opening words in the Vulgate are Dixit Dominus Domino meo - is a kind of oracular or prophetic blessing which envisages the Davidic king sitting at the very right hand of God, acting explicitly on God’s behalf, and active both as successful military leader and priest. Though somewhat enigmatic in places, the seven verses of the Psalm express a substantial vision of power. Calvin, in his commentary on the Psalms, wrote that “in this psalm David sets forth the perpetuity of Christ’s reign, and the eternity of his priesthood; and, in the first place, he affirms, That God conferred upon Christ supreme dominion, combined with invincible power, with which he either conquers all his enemies, or compels them to submit to him”. If one thinks of the great musical settings of the Dixit Dominus – by Monteverdi, Vivaldi and Handel, for example – there is some sense of that all-encompassing power. There is little of it in this setting by Cimarosa; which is not to say that it is bad, but that it embodies a slighter, narrower response to the text and a different notion of the sacred.
 
Most of Cimarosa’s sacred works belong to his early years; but this setting was written only a few years before his death. It may be worth remembering that also in the 1790s Cimarosa was outspoken in his support of the principles of the French Revolution. Indeed he composed ‘A Patriotic Hymn for the Burning of the Portraits of Tyrants’ as part of his sympathy for the antiroyalist movement that led to the establishment of the Parthenopean Republic. His sentiments were hardly those of orthodox Neapolitan Catholic piety and after December 1799, when the King and conservative elements regained control of the city he was first imprisoned, then sentenced to death and finally exiled. His ideas about the power of kings were probably less than fully in harmony with at least the superficial implications of Psalm 110 and we shouldn’t, I think, expect the work to be a work of profound spirituality … is that found anywhere in Cimarosa?
 
What we get is a work steeped in Cimarosa’s operatic experience, but conventionally ‘sacred’ in form. Thus we get to hear all the musical forces at beginning and end of the work, and in between soloists alternate with chorus. The music is, unsurprisingly, very well put together; there are plenty of enticing melodies and the whole has considerable charm. But compared to the great settings of the same Psalm it lacks both profundity and real grandeur of conception. Still, take it on its own terms and there is much to enjoy.
 
All three of the soloists get their chances in the limelight, and all three prove to be very decent singers indeed, thoroughly at home in the idiom, if not exactly overwhelming. The tenor Gregory Bonfatti, a man who has turned up in secondary roles on more than a few significant opera sets in recent years, sings very attractively in the ‘Dominis a dextris tuis’, and certainly reminds us (appropriately enough in this context) of his operatic pedigree. The duet between Cinzia Rizzone and Sylvia Rottensteiner in the setting of ‘Virgam virtutis’ is delightful, the interplay of voices very elegant. Rizzone, in particular, sounds like a very accomplished singer.
 
The Haydn Orchestra di Bolzano e Trento, which plays on modern instruments, was founded in 1960. It has something of a reputation for playing neglected or forgotten repertoire – indeed it gave the first modern performance of this very piece, discovered in manuscript in the library of the San Pietro a Majella Conservatory in Naples. The orchestra is certainly a very competent group of musicians and, under the baton of Fabio Pirona, makes its own substantial contribution to a pleasant disc which - for all its real enough pleasures - is likely to remain the preserve of specialists.
 
Glyn Pursglove

 

 
 


Advertising on
Musicweb


Donate and keep us afloat

 

New Releases

Naxos Classical
All Naxos reviews

Chandos recordings
All Chandos reviews

Hyperion recordings
All Hyperion reviews

Foghorn recordings
All Foghorn reviews

Troubadisc recordings
All Troubadisc reviews



all Bridge reviews


all cpo reviews

Divine Art recordings
Click to see New Releases
Get 10% off using code musicweb10
All Divine Art reviews


All Eloquence reviews

Lyrita recordings
All Lyrita Reviews

 

Wyastone New Releases
Obtain 10% discount

Subscribe to our free weekly review listing

 

 


EXPLORE MUSICWEB INTERNATIONAL

Making a Donation to MusicWeb

Writing CD reviews for MWI

About MWI
Who we are, where we have come from and how we do it.

Site Map

How to find a review

How to find articles on MusicWeb
Listed in date order

Review Indexes
   By Label
      Select a label and all reviews are listed in Catalogue order
   By Masterwork
            Links from composer names (eg Sibelius) are to resource pages with links to the review indexes for the individual works as well as other resources.

Themed Review pages

Jazz reviews

 

Discographies
   Composer
      Composer surveys
   National
      Unique to MusicWeb -
a comprehensive listing of all LP and CD recordings of given works
.
Prepared by Michael Herman

The Collector’s Guide to Gramophone Company Record Labels 1898 - 1925
Howard Friedman

Book Reviews

Complete Books
We have a number of out of print complete books on-line

Interviews
With Composers, Conductors, Singers, Instumentalists and others
Includes those on the Seen and Heard site

Nostalgia

Nostalgia CD reviews

Records Of The Year
Each reviewer is given the opportunity to select the best of the releases

Monthly Best Buys
Recordings of the Month and Bargains of the Month

Comment
Arthur Butterworth Writes

An occasional column

Phil Scowcroft's Garlands
British Light Music articles

Classical blogs
A listing of Classical Music Blogs external to MusicWeb International

Reviewers Logs
What they have been listening to for pleasure

Announcements

 

Community
Bulletin Board

Give your opinions or seek answers

Reviewers
Past and present

Helpers invited!

Resources
How Did I Miss That?

Currently suspended but there are a lot there with sound clips


Composer Resources

British Composers

British Light Music Composers

Other composers

Film Music (Archive)
Film Music on the Web (Closed in December 2006)

Programme Notes
For concert organizers

External sites
British Music Society
The BBC Proms
Orchestra Sites
Recording Companies & Retailers
Online Music
Agents & Marketing
Publishers
Other links
Newsgroups
Web News sites etc

PotPourri
A pot-pourri of articles

MW Listening Room
MW Office

Advice to Windows Vista users  
Questionnaire    
Site History  
What they say about us
What we say about us!
Where to get help on the Internet
CD orders By Special Request
Graphics archive
Currency Converter
Dictionary
Magazines
Newsfeed  
Web Ring
Translation Service

Rules for potential reviewers :-)
Do Not Go Here!
April Fools




Return to Review Index

Untitled Document


Reviews from previous months
Join the mailing list and receive a hyperlinked weekly update on the discs reviewed. details
We welcome feedback on our reviews. Please use the Bulletin Board
Please paste in the first line of your comments the URL of the review to which you refer.