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Label:
  DHM
Serial:
  82876587922, BVCD-31018
Title:
  Handel: Dixit Dominus - Hengelbrock
Description:
  Handel: Dixit Dominus, Caldara: Missa Dolorosa

Balthasar Neumann Chor
Balthasar Neumann Ensemble
Thomas Hengelbrock (conductor)
Track listing:
 
Genre:
  Classical - Vocal
Content:
  Stereo/Multichannel
Media:
  Hybrid
Recording type:
 
Recording info:
 

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Reviews: 2

Review by brenda October 28, 2004 (5 of 5 found this review helpful)
Performance:   Sonics:
I love both of these pieces and have them both on redbook cds (is that the correct terminology?), the Caldara on an excellent (and cheap) naxos disc, one of several of Caldara's church music they've produced. Rene Jacob's recording of Caldara's "Magdelen at the feet of christ" was one of the records of the 90's and is one of my desert island discs.

Beardawgs (see below) is right in saying that, in the Caldara Missa Dolorosa on this disc "the soloists sound just right and the tempi are natural".

However, what beardawgs found fast and flashy in the Handel Dixit Dominus I found refreshing and exciting. Rather than sounding anachronistic or out of place, it sounds to me as though Handel assimilated the musical lessons not only of Vivaldi but also of many other Italian composers such as Lotti, Rossi, Grandi, Albicastro and Alessandro Scarlatti but added his own distinctive genius to them. Beardawgs doesn't think the result sounds like church music, but the church music of the time was not just of the serene and solemn Monteverdian Vespers tradition but was also as lively as much Italian secular music. Much of it was was celebratory, and celebration is as much part of worship as slowness and solemnity (and a lot more fun - I'm speaking as an amateur chorister). The Dixit was written in Rome and is a tribute by the young German genius to Italian culture of the period, in all its manifestations, including celebratory

I do agree that the recording is a little on the bright side, that there could well have been more ambience from the rear speakers and that the soloists are a bit uneven, but the latter factor seems to enhance the feeling of spirited devotion from a group of singers, so I don't object too much.

I'd give the sound a 3.5 and the Handel performance a good 4.5 stars and the Caldara 5.

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Review by beardawgs September 7, 2004 (4 of 5 found this review helpful)
Performance:   Sonics:
Very informative essay in the booklet not only provides plenty of information about the almost forgotten Antonio Caldara, but explains a lot about performing practices from the young Handel’s period in his Italian years. His Dixit Dominus still remains a mystery, it is well known he wrote this little masterpiece in Rome, but its musical language is rooted in Venetian baroque practices. Accordingly, in Hengelbrock’s performance it sounds like an elaborate Vivaldi and I didn’t like it. It’s far too fast and flashy. Maybe I’m just biased by unruffled (even meditative) Pinock’s and Gardiner’s recordings, but to my ears it doesn’t sound like a piece of religious music.

Too bright and open recording doesn’t help either, to our ears it’s too shrill and on quite a few places painfully piercing. The soloists are from the choir and are quite uneven in their contributions, things improve in the last two movements (sonically and performance-wise) when Handel slows down and everything sounds more human, but the conductor can’t keep the tension of the slow music for more than a minute or two.

Caldara’s Missa Dolorosa works much, much better. He was (apparently) one of the most celebrated composers in Europe during his lifetime, but how ever popular his music might have been, it is rarely performed today. The performers are more at ease with Caldara than Handel, suddenly they are able to express full variety of colours and expressions, the soloists sound just right and the tempi are natural. The music itself is quite a discovery, unfortunately limited length due to its church service function. Even if it doesn’t have Handel’s or Vivaldi’s immediate impact, it is well worth exploring, especially the final item – Crucifixus in 16 voices, a fine example of serene baroque polyphony.

If you’re eyeing up this disc for Handel I wouldn’t recommend it. Buy it for Caldara. Only 2 stars for Handel’s performance, 5 for Caldara. Sound-wise I’m not particularly thrilled either, Handel sounds too rough and in both items surround is almost non existent. This is a church music after all.

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Works: 2  

Antonio Caldara - Missa Dolorosa
George Frideric Handel - Dixit Dominus, HWV 232 (Psalm 110)