I hadn’t heard of Father Æmilian
Rosengart, which is hardly surprising when all but one
of these pieces, the final
Te Deum, receive here
their world premiere recordings. Neither the
Concise
Grove nor the
Oxford Companion to Music lists
him. I can only praise Carus’s initiative in making his
music available when it must be doubtful how many copies
the CD will sell. This recording has not yet made its way
to classicsonline, but several Carus recordings can be
had there as downloads, so perhaps it will sell a few more
in that format in due course. The association with Südwest
Rundfunk presumably helps to offset some of the production
costs. All the Carus products that have come my way have
been recommendable – see my
review of
their Buxtehude recording on 83.193.
In the last year or so
alone Carus has done sterling work in bringing us several
works by Homilius, another composer who resided only in
a dim corner of my memory until then. Try Carus’s version
of his
Ein Lämmlein geht (83.262 – see
review – two
CDs or available as a download from Classicsonline).
That Homilius cantata
was written in 1775 during the intermediate period between
the death of J.S. Bach and the full flowering of the great
triumvirate of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven. Rosengart’s
music, too, dates from this time when the late baroque
was giving way to the early classical. Not surprisingly,
it sometimes seems firmly rooted in the former, at other
times it sounds like the precursor of the latter. As a
South German composer, he also provides a bridge between
the works of his fellow Roman Catholics in Italy and Spain
and the North German Lutheran composers.
The music is, therefore,
of considerable historical interest. Its musical merit,
too, is far from negligible, though I must admit that I
am unlikely to want to hear it as often as the choral works
of Alessandro Scarlatti and Bach on the one hand or of
Haydn and Mozart on the other. It isn’t, for example, a
discovery of the same magnitude as the 1779
Requiem by
Haydn’s younger brother Michael (Hyperion CDA67510) two
recordings of whose music are advertised on the back cover
of the booklet for the Rosengart CD.
Don’t be put off by the
statement in the booklet that the music of this period
is less immediate in its appeal than the visual arts and
that the listener needs to absorb some of the literature
and theology of the period. At least, that’s what the German
original says – the English translation contrives not quite
to hit the target. If you like Haydn’s Masses, you shouldn’t
have any trouble responding to Rosengart.
Rosengart was a priest
at the monastery of Ochsenhausen – where, most appropriately,
this recording was made – between 1775 and its dissolution
in 1803, when he went to Tannheim as a parish priest.
All the music on this
CD was, or could be, employed within the liturgy at Ochsenhausen,
some, like the
Magnificat (track 3) and
Te Deum (tr.15)
in the unchanging daily offices, others for particular
feast days. The texts of the two works invoking the Holy
Spirit,
Veni Sancte Spiritus (track 1) and
Veni
Creator Spiritus (tr.4) are associated with Pentecost
(Whitsun) and with ordinations,
Hostis Herodes with
the Massacre of the Innocents (tr.6) and
Rorate Cœli is
the so-called Advent Prose. Apart from a slightly hesitant
performance of track 1 – warm-up nerves? – the performances
of all these pieces are more than adequate.
The setting of
Tenebræ facta
sunt (tr.11) for the Holy Week office of
Tenebræ is
particularly effective. It is a simple setting for tenor,
bass, organ and violone though less affecting than other
Tenebræ settings
you may have encountered, and certainly much less so
than parts of the Bach Passions. That’s especially true
in such a fine, unforced performance. There’s no attempt
to wring from it deep emotion that isn’t there. None
of the soloists here or on other tracks are named.
Surprisingly, only one
psalm setting is included, that of
Cantate Domino (tr.10).
Apparently Rosengart’s 90+ surviving compositions contain
only two psalm settings. Probably he avoided them because
they were chanted in the daily office. Be that as it may,
this is an attractive setting for bass soloist, four-part
choir and instruments. Once again, it receives a fine performance,
though the soloist is perhaps a little unassertive.
Carus have chosen the
title
Te Deum Laudamus for the whole CD. This is
not only the longest item on the CD (track 15), it is the
only one which is not receiving its world premiere recording.
An impressive large-scale setting for four-part choir,
organ, flutes, timpani and strings, it here receives a
performance to match. Though not billed by Carus as a premiere,
I cannot find any other recording of this work in the current
catalogue.
Apart from the slight
awkwardness in the opening
Veni Sancte Spiritus (tr.1)
all the performances do justice to the music. Try the samples
(
Hörbeispiele – follow the
link)
at the Carus website if you have any doubts: the 1-minute
excerpt from the final track is probably the best to try.
The recording quality
is excellent throughout, especially as it captures the
acoustics of the very
Klosterkirche or monastic
church for which the music was composed. The ambience is
clearly not that of a recording studio, but in no sense
is it over-reverberant; indeed, the sound is much ‘cleaner’ than
I had expected.
The booklet is informative
but not infallible. It implies that
Te Deum is a
Vespers canticle, when it is prescribed in the Roman and
Anglican rites for Matins. The name of the director, Jürgen
Essl, is sloppily misprinted minus the
r on the
rear insert. The English translation is mostly comprehensible,
but not always idiomatic, despite the name of the translator
indicating an Anglophone. The English translation of
Te
Deum employs the familiar words of the Book of Common
Prayer but the
Magnificat, which could also have
been taken from the BCP, oddly begins ‘All my spirit exalts
the Lord’: where is the word ‘all’ in
Magnificat anima
mea Dominum? Even more oddly, the
Dominus tecum of
Ave
Maria is rendered as ‘God has been with you’, instead
of the more usual - and more accurate - ‘the Lord is with
you’. The German has the expected ‘Der Herr ist mit dir’.
The English translations are not on the same pages as the
originals, which is awkward.
I’d have liked more information
about, for example, the dates of individual works. I’ve
been able to give the date of the
Magnificat only
because the booklet contains a dated reproduction of a
beautifully written autograph manuscript copy in the Swabian
Music Archive.
The attractive cover offers
a reproduction of part of the baroque ceiling of the monastic
church where Rosengart served and where the recording was
made.
No neglected masterpieces
here, then, but attractive music, well performed and recorded.
Brian Wilson
see also review by Robert Hugill
Orpheus
Vokalensemble; Ars Antiqua Austria/Jürgen Essl
(organ) 
