I penitenti al sepolcro del redentore, ZWV 63

Last updated

I penitenti al sepolcro del redentore (The penitents at the tomb of the redeemer), ZWV 63, is an oratorio by Jan Dismas Zelenka, commissioned and first composed for a performance on Good Friday, March 30 1736, for his employer Augustus III, in Dresden. [1] [2] [3] The work departing from the usual canon of a setting of the text of one of the Gospels, being instead a poem focusing on the meaning of Christ's sacrifice, is unusual in this aspect.

Contents

The work was well received, a contemporary diary from the Dresden Jesuits reporting that on the date in question, "at 8 pm a very elegant new oratorio composed by Zelenka titled I Penitenti al Sepolchro was heard, and for this, candles were placed in the choir." It is also possible that the oratorio was repeated three years later, when the Jesuits again write that Zelenka was the composer of oratorios heard on Good Friday and on Holy Saturday, [4] although there is more certainty that it was again played in Prague in 1738, a performance made possible through the intervention of Zelenka's patron, Jan Hubert Hartig. [5]

The work survives as a manuscript in the Saxon State Library in Dresden, and has been recorded by various modern artists.

Text

The text, written by Stefano Benedetto Pallavicini, [6] combines the Old and New Testaments, by depicting an imaginary meeting between King David, Mary Magdalene and Peter at Christ's tomb. [7]

Music

The work begins with a sinfonia which bears semblance to a French overture, the long, intensely dramatic and chromatic central fugato being surrounded by slow sections featuring 3-against-4 rhythmic conflicts. [8] In addition to a few recitatives, it features a short, fiery aria for Peter (Lingua perfida), and four long da capo arias (averaging more than 10 minutes each), two each for David and Mary Magdalene. A chorus closes the whole. [9]

The music features a lot of pizzicato and strumming effects. The work bears the usual fingerprints of the composer, which make him "one of the few of his era with a true personal style": from a rhythmic point of view, the work is most remarkable for its polyrhythmic opposition of duple and triple meters, which is combined with nearly constant syncopation and asymmetrical phrases. Melodically and harmonically, odd-looking fugue subjects are coupled with coloured harmonies and long, abruptly-ending ritornellos. [9] The orchestral writing, along with expressive solos, bears a theatricality close to that of a secular opera. [7]

  1. Adagio - Andante - Adagio [Sinfonia]
  2. Aria (King David) - Squarcia le chiome
  3. Recitativo secco (King David) - Tramontata è la Stella
  4. Recitativo accompagnato (Mary Magdalene) - Oimè, quasi nel campo
  5. Aria (Mary Magdalene) - Del mio amor, divini sguardi
  6. Recitativo secco (Peter) - Quai la dispersa greggia
  7. Aria (Peter) - Lingua perfida
  8. Recitativo secco (Mary Magdalene) - Per la traccia del sangue
  9. Aria (Mary Magdalene) - Da vivo tronco aperto
  10. Recitativo accompagnato (King David) - Questa che fu possente
  11. Aria (King David) - Le tue corde, arpe sonora
  12. Recitativo secco (Peter) - Tributo accetto più, più grato dono/ Recitativo secco Maddalena
  13. Coro e Aria (King David) - Miserere mio Dio

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Recitative</span> Ordinary speech-like singing in opera, cantata, mass or oratorio

Recitative is a style of delivery in which a singer is allowed to adopt the rhythms and delivery of ordinary speech. Recitative does not repeat lines as formally composed songs do. It resembles sung ordinary speech more than a formal musical composition.

This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 1733.

The year 1730 in music involved some significant events.

The year 1718 in music involved some significant events.

Jan Dismas Zelenka, baptised Jan Lukáš Zelenka was a Czech composer and musician of the Baroque period. His music is admired for its harmonic inventiveness and mastery of counterpoint.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Magdalena Kožená</span> Czech mezzo-soprano (born 1973)

Magdalena Kožená, Lady Rattle is a Czech mezzo-soprano.

<i>Ascanio in Alba</i> 1771 pastoral opera by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Ascanio in Alba, K. 111, is a pastoral opera in two parts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to an Italian libretto by Giuseppe Parini. It was commissioned by the Empress Maria Theresa for the wedding of her son, Archduke Ferdinand Karl, to Maria Beatrice d'Este on 15 October 1771.

Marcus Ullmann is a German classical tenor.

Sub olea pacis et palma virtutis conspicua orbi regia Bohemiae Corona: Melodrama de Sancto Wenceslao , ZWV 175, is an extensive composition, written in 1723 by Czech baroque composer Jan Dismas Zelenka.

Il Serpente di Bronzo, ZWV 61 is a sacred cantata composed by the Czech composer Jan Dismas Zelenka (1679–1745).

Hana Blažíková is a Czech soprano and harpist. She is focused on Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque music, appearing internationally. She has recorded as a member of the Bach Collegium Japan, among many others.

The Missa Votiva is a mass composed by the Czech Baroque composer Jan Dismas Zelenka in 1739, Dresden. The Missa Votiva is about seventy minutes long, and its twenty parts range from forty-five seconds to over seven minutes in length.

Collegium 1704 is a Czech early music orchestra and choir founded in 2005 by the Czech conductor, harpsichordist, and horn player Václav Luks. The Collegium Vocale 1704 is the affiliated vocal ensemble. Since 2007, the ensemble has been making regular guest appearances at festivals and concert halls all over Europe: the Salzburger Festspiele, the Berliner Philharmonie, London’s Wigmore Hall, Vienna’s Theater an der Wien and Konzerthaus, the Lucerne Festival, BOZAR in Brussels, the Chopin Festival in Warsaw, Wratislavia Cantans, and the Elbphilharmonie, and it is an ensemble-in-residence at the festival Oude Muziek in Utrecht and at the Leipzig Bachfest. In 2008, Music Bridge Prague — Dresden began, bringing together the two cities’ wealth of cultural traditions. In 2012 Collegium 1704 started a concert series at the Rudolfinum in Prague. Since autumn 2015, the two cycles have been merged into a single concert season that continues to take place in parallel in Prague and Dresden. In 2019 Collegium Vocale 1704 launched a series of chamber choir concerts in Prague.

Il Diamante, ZWV 177, is a composition from 1737 by Czech baroque composer Jan Dismas Zelenka.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Johannes Hill</span> German opera singer

Johannes Hill is a German baritone in concert and in oratorios, who has performed internationally. Singing in choirs from age 10, he has performed major roles in oratorios, such as both Jesus and Pilate in Bach's Passions, and Pope Francis in the premiere of Laudato si'. He has also performed in vocal ensembles such as Kammerchor Stuttgart and Collegium Vocale Gent.

Václav Luks is a Czech harpsichordist, horn player, conductor, musicologist and pedagogue, founder and artistic director of the Prague baroque orchestra Collegium 1704 and of the vocal ensemble Collegium Vocale 1704. He specialises in Baroque music, especially in the works of Jan Dismas Zelenka, Johann Sebastian Bach, George Frideric Handel, and others. His activities have played an important role in reviving interest in the works of Czech composers including Zelenka and Josef Mysliveček. In 2022, Luks was awarded the title of Knight of the French Ministry of Culture, Arts and Letters.

<i>La fedeltà premiata</i> (Antal Doráti recording) 1976 studio album by Antal Dorati

La fedeltà premiata is a 162-minute studio album of Joseph Haydn's opera, performed by Luigi Alva, Ileana Cotrubas, Tonny Landy, Kari Lövaas, Maurizio Mazzieri, Frederica von Stade, Lucia Valentini Terrani and Alan Titus with the Chœurs de la Radio Suisse Romande and the Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne under the direction of Antal Doráti. It was released in 1976.

<i>Missa Providentiae</i>

Missa Providentiae is a Kyrie–Gloria Mass in D minor composed by Antonio Caldara, which around 1728 was expanded into a Missa tota by Jan Dismas Zelenka: this composer derived a Sanctus and Agnus Dei from Caldara's Kyrie and Gloria, and added a Credo, ZWV 31, of his own hand. Around 1738–1741, Johann Sebastian Bach made a copy of a Sanctus, BWV 239, which was based on the first section of the Gloria of Caldara's Kyrie–Gloria Mass.

References

  1. ↑ Bedetti, Andrea. "Gli oratori di Jan Dismas Zelenka". guide.supereva.it.
  2. ↑ "I Penitenti al Sepolcro del Redentore ZWV 63 - Jan Dismas Zelenka (edited by Václav Luks)". Czech Radio (in Czech). 6 February 2012. Retrieved 28 March 2021.
  3. ↑ "Jan Dismas Zelenka. I Penitenti al Sepolcro del Redentore - HUGO, Robert, CAOEKKA REGIA MUSICALIS (Supraphon)". El arte de la fuga - la mejor selección de música clásica. Retrieved 29 March 2021.
  4. ↑ "ZELENKA, Gio. Dis. - Volume 3: S-Musica senza nome -". Catalogue of the Music Collection of the Dresden Catholic Court Church 1765. Retrieved 28 March 2021.
  5. ↑ Stockigt, Janice B. (2000). Jan Dismas Zelenka: A Bohemian Musician at the Court of Dresden. Oxford University Press. p. 6. ISBN   978-0-19-816622-1.
  6. ↑ Plett, Heinrich F. (14 August 2012). Enargeia in Classical Antiquity and the Early Modern Age: The Aesthetics of Evidence. BRILL. pp. 81–84. ISBN   978-90-04-22702-6.
  7. 1 2 Clements, Andrew (15 October 2009). "Zelenka: I Penitenti al Sepolchro del Redentore: Rewerski/Stoklossa/Berndt/Collegium Vocale 1704/Luks | CD review". the Guardian.
  8. ↑ Salter, Lionel. "Review". Gramophone. Retrieved 29 March 2021.
  9. 1 2 Hurwitz, David. "Zelenka: Penitenti - Classics Today".

Further reading

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.