Jan Dismas Zelenka Psalmi Iii Nibiru cd

Zelenka was the most important Bohemian composer before Gluck. He wrote no operas and few instrumental works, but a great body of sacred music for the Catholic court at Dresden plus a few choice secular works. His music is characterized by passus duriusculus – chromatic descent. Another distinguishing characteristic is slow triplets – not infrequently used by Zelenka, though rarely heard in the works of better known late baroque composers.

Jan Dismas Zelenka - Psalmi Varii Separatim Scripti - Prague Baroque Soloists, Ensemble Inegal, Adam Viktora (2018) {Nibiru}
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© 2018 Nibiru | 01652231
Classical / Baroque / Period Instruments / Sacred

A World Premiere recording of Zelenka's complete Psalmi Varii Separatim Scripti. They come from the fourth and last cycle of Psalm settings Zelenka made during his years in Dresden. Detailed notes on them and their texts in English come with the disc.

Jan Dismas Zelenka (1679-1745) Officium defunctorum ZWV 47 – Requiem in D ZWV 46 (Music for the funeral rites of Augustus the Strong) Jan Dismas Zelenka’s music for the funeral rites of Augustus the Strong – Officium defunctorum ZWV 47 (Invitatorium, Nocturno I-III) and Requiem ZWV 46 – reveals the most impressive face of the Baroque theatre of death. The man in the chief role of this spectacle follows the appeal in the 95th psalm of the introductory antiphon of the invitatorium “the King, in whom everything lives, let us worship Him”, and bows his head before God and the majesty of death.

We badly need a complete set of Zelenka's orchestra works, as Arkiv's edition has long vanished into the remainder bins, and this one (previously issued as three separate CDs) fits the bill nicely. Although the players use "authentic instruments", their sound is comparatively warm and gentle, though this doesn't mean that they don't handle with aplomb the insanely virtuosic horn parts in the Capriccios, or the bubbling wind writing in the Concerto. The inclusion of the overture from Melodrama de S. Wenceslao makes an interesting bonus, with its fascinating opposition of simultaneous duple and triple rhythms.

Jednou z dominant letošního edičního plánu Supraphonu je světová premiéra historicky tak nepřehlédnutelného díla, jakým je korunovační opera Sub olea pacis největšího českého barokního skladatele Jana Dismase Zelenky (1679-1745). K velkolepé pražské korunovaci habsburského panovníka Karla VI. českým králem roku 1723 se připojili i pražští jezuité, když si u nejslavnějšího žijícího českého skladatele a navíc svého odchovance objednali velkolepou hudební fresku. Skladatel jejich přání s radostí vyhověl a dokonce své dílo přijel do Prahy nastudovat, a můžeme dnes říci, že se mu jeho tvůrčí pokus bezezbytku vyvedl. Více než hodinu a půl trvající skladba je jedním z nejlepších plodů barokní estetiky a navíc - po formální stránce - jednou ze čtyř úplně dochovaných tzv. školských her.

The Missa Votiva, ZWV 18, of Czech-German composer Jan Dismas Zelenka was written in 1739, late in Zelenka's life. It has something in common with the String Quartet No. 15 in A minor, Op. 132, of Beethoven: both are late works written as prayers of thanksgiving after their respective composers' recovery from serious illness. And, although the Zelenka work is virtually unknown, both are staggering masterpieces. The more Zelenka's music surfaces, the more he appears a major composer of the late Baroque; he was probably ignored for so long because his life story, during eras when audiences loved to have biographies on which to hang music, is largely obscure.

Jan Dismas Zelenka (1679–1745) is one of the most enigmatic figures in the history of Baroque music. Very little is known of his early years, where he studied and who taught him. Born in a village to the south of Prague, he later travelled to Dresden where he joined the court of the Elector of Saxony, Friedrich August I. His position at the court was a lowly one, but he nonetheless composed many works there and his output of church music was particularly prolific.