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Reviewer: James
A. Altena This release only imperfectly fills an important niche in early Baroque repertoire. Thankfully, the music of Johann Rosenmüller (1619–1684)—in contrast to most sources, the booklet notes assert for him a likely birth date of August 24, 1617 instead—has in recent years begun to receive the recognition and attention it deserves. (See, for example, recent reviews of CDs of his music by Barry Brenesal in 34:3, Bertil van Boer in 34:1 and 34:6, and myself in 34:5, 35:1, and 35:2.) The Marian Vespers featured here is apparently not a single unified composition—the otherwise detailed booklet notes by noted Rosenmüller specialist Arno Paduch are surprisingly vague on this point—but rather an assemblage of various compositions that the composer wrote for that service during his years of exile in Italy after fleeing Leipzig in 1655 upon being charged with pederasty. The service music collocated here comprises an Ingressus, six antiphons, seven canticles, and two instrumental sonatas. The compositions themselves are top-drawer representations of the composer’s unique fusion of German and Italian forms and stylistic elements; unfortunately the performances are not of the same caliber. The solo vocal work is often substandard, featuring uningratiating voices that are sometimes technically deficient in breath support, intonation, or dispatching of rapid passage-work. The choral work is more polished but still rough in spots, and is less engaged and expressive than one would nowadays expect. The instrumental performers fare best, but even here one has the feeling that only six out of eight interpretive cylinders are firing. The recorded sound is crisp and clear; full Latin texts with English and German translations, plus artist bios, are provided. This is by no means a bad set of performances, and given the relative paucity of CDs devoted to Rosenmüller’s lovely art I do not wish to withhold a recommendation of it to anyone interested in this repertoire; but I cannot help but express a degree of palpable disappointment in the results. Twenty years ago this would have been abreast of the best standards, but nowadays we can and do expect significantly better in such repertoire. James A. Altena | |
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