Johann David Heinichen (1683-1729)
Two Passion Oratorios
Come? S'imbruna il cieli Occhi piangete (1728)
L'aride tempie ignude (1724?)
Elena Hársanyi (soprano)
Elvira Bill (alto)
Micko Ludwig (tenor)
Andreas Wolf (baritone)
Kölner Akademie/Michael Alexander Willens
rec. 2021, Immanuelskirche, Wuppertal, Germany
CPO 555 507-2 [75]
Note the title: "Passion Oratorios" - not full liturgical settings of the Passion like Bach's: Heinichen's scores are compact, each running a bit longer than a half-hour. As in some Baroque operas, the recitatives carry the forward "argument," while the sometimes unexpectedly light-toned arias are meditations; the "choruses" are sung by the soloists as a group.
In Come? S'imbruna il cieli Occhi piangete, the composer treats the Passion story indirectly: the characters are Mary Magdalene, the Virgin Mary, John the Baptist, and the Centurion, who has just one line in the Gospel, but gets a full recitative and aria here - no Jesus. In a neat reversal of expectations, the motherly alto is the Virgin, the impulsive soprano the Magdalene.
The doings are even more abstract in the apparently earlier L'aride tempie ignude: the characters are Death (bass), Divine Love (alto), Penitence (tenor), and, finally, Hope (soprano). Stylistically, Heinichen adheres to standard structures, with a few tricks up his sleeve: the unusual melodic and harmonic chromatics in the alto aria, and the ambiguous scansion - triple or duple? - of that for the tenor.
Michael Alexander Willens's restrained conducting strikes the right air of gracious formality in both the lighter movements and the more sombre ones. Presumably, he also worked out the decorations in the tripartite arias: simple upward repointings in Mary Magdalene's first one, more elaborate embellishments elsewhere.
Elena Hársanyi ferociously straight-tones her first few numbers, though her lines and tuning are clear. Gradually, she loosens up, to the point that her singing as Hope in L'aride tempie ignude is actually quite vibrant. Elvira Bill has a lovely, smooth voice - though she favors an oratorio-contralto aloofness - and stays clearly audible through the final, broad counterpoint of L'aride, no mean feat. Tenor Micko Ludwig's first few notes, in Come? S'imbruna, sound oddly similar to Bill's last few, but he brings enough vocal and dramatic presence to balance his soft-grained attacks. Andreas Wolf gets a bit tremulous when the temperature rises in L'aride, but the upper range is free and the runs are clear, though some are aspirated.
Antonio de Sarlo, deservedly receives credit as Italian diction coach. The pronunciation and inflection of the Italian are impeccable throughout: Hársanyi and Ludwig are particularly urgent and alert in their delivery.
Sonics are fine, with a mild ambience mostly audible around the oboes. The uncredited English translation in the trilingual libretto doesn't always match the Italian, either word for word or line by line.
Stephen Francis Vasta
stevedisque.wordpress.com/blog
Published: November 3, 2022
