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Maddalena ai piedi di
Cristo
Right: Anonymous portrait of Antonio
Caldara.
This is
the kind of disc that make reviewers drop all their half-done articles and
immediately begin reviewing it (after they stop drooling and pick up their
dropped jaws). Why? Because the music is incredible, revelatory, completely
refreshening my love of Baroque music. Simply put: I dare you (especially those
of you who can't resist Baroque music) to find a single bad track on these CDs.
This multi-award-winning album, widely praised in every review of it I've
encountered, deserves all that and more! Redundant this review may be, I just
have to show you how much I love this music, and to tempt those of you who have
yet to get a copy (Harmonia Mundi is now easily available at HMV or Borders) to
go buy one now. Now!
As those
of you who may have read my review of Vaticini di Pace may know, Antonio Caldara
is a contemporary of Vivaldi whose talent and music remains largely neglected -
most of his huge treasure trove of 87 operas and 40 oratorios are yet to be
recorded. But it is definitely just a matter of time.
Left: Detail of Magdalene at the feet of Christ,
from "The
Lamentation" (c.1303-5) by Giotto (c.1267-1337).
THE PLOT of Maddalena ai piedi di
Cristo is not one of much action, but rather of a conversational and ideological
struggle between the forces of good and evil, wherein Magdalene is urged towards
penitence by her sister Martha. But really, when the music is so beguiling, I
didn't look at the libretto until I had played through the discs several
times.
Right
from the beginning, a Vivaldian overture openly and brightly advertises the
sheer delightful fertility of Caldara. If you think Caldara is just a
second-rate Vivaldi, think again - this is an original voice with his own
melodies! Many of the arias you will hear in the oratorio are sung by Amor
Terreno (Earthly Love) and Amor Celeste (you guessed it - the good counterpart,
Celestial or Divine Love).
These
are delivered to aural enrapturement by alto Bernarda Fink and the countertenor,
Andreas Scholl (right), surely two of the best in the business. Just listen to
the first two arias by Amor Terreno, urging the listener to blissful sleep. Or
Andreas Scholl - technical skill wedded to a delightful sense of decoration,
bursting into a flurry of trills and turns when you least expect
it.
As in
the Christmas Cantata, Caldara again shows his gift for the most heavenly
lullabies. Divine Love enters dramatically yet calmly, but most musically, to
interrupt "Love's treacherous charm", bursting into one of my favourite arias in
the oratorio, the rousing but completely graceful La ragione, s'un'alma
conseglia ("When Reason counsels the soul") Listen how on the second round of
the aria, Scholl effectively and brilliantly ornaments his lines. We are only 10
minutes into the first disc!
 IT'S
REALLY pointless for me to describe - suffice to say there is an original hand
at work here, despite and within the reminders of Vivaldian stringwork,
Handelian rigour, Telemannian playfulness, the humanising touch of Bach and
above all, an outpouring wealth of meltingly gorgeous melody. The music is in
the very best, the highest vein of the Italian Baroque, splendidly full of life.
All this is matched in total spirit and harmony with the skilful playing of the
21-piece Schola Cantorum Basiliensis orchestra under the expert and musical
direction of René Jacobs. Oh and the singers!
The
Argentinian (all the women soloists are from South America) soprano Maria
Cristina Kiehr (right) sings her Magdalene with presence and much pleasure.
There is the lamenting Pompe inutili ("Worthless finery" Disc 1, track 18), with
its extended cello-surging melisma on the word "tormento" and her florrid
command to the "vile images of sin" to drop to the ground; and there is the
triumphant yet humbly jubilant diletti non più vanto ("Delights, you shall no
longer..." 1:22) with its fading trill into the distance and an almost happy
gavotte melody.
Rosa
Dominguez's Marta can be demonstrated with the following aria Vattene, corri,
vola ("Go now, run now, fly now" 1: track 24) - its Handelian orchestral
accompaniment compliments the little leaps of encouragement she sings to her
sister, with its cheerful runs and her nicely rubato'ed trills. What music!
Believe it or not, all the examples above were chosen randomly, and they all
come from the first disc only!
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