La Passione

La Passione secondo Matteo di Francesco Corteccia Presentazione del CD con esecuzione di musica dal vivo L’Associazione L’Homme Armé presenta Una Passione per il popolo. La Passione secondo Matteo di Francesco Corteccia, prima incisione discografica al mondo, pubblicata da EMA Vinci, dell’inedita Passione secondo Matteo del musico prediletto del Granduca Cosimo I. Intervengono: Gabriele Giacomelli, Giuseppe Scali (EMA Vinci), Elisabetta Torsellicon la partecipazione di:Pietro Bartolini eL’Homme Armé:Andrés Montilla Acurero Paolo Fanciullacci Riccardo Pisani Gabriele LombardiFabio Lombardo Ingresso libero su prenotazione.L’iniziativa si svolgerà nel rispetto dei protocolli anti-covid. Sarà necessario l’utilizzo della mascherina e in tutti gli spazi verrà garantito il…

First and only recording of this rare but striking beautiful Oratorio by J. G. Naumann. It is composed in the italian style of the late XVIII century (like Salieri's Passione) and contains 2 concertante arias: one with violin, one with bassoon (!!!) which show how good Naumann really was. CPO delivered us a wonderful recording by a great italian specialist: Sergio Balestracci, conducting La Stagione Armonica (chorus) and Orchestra di Padova e del Veneto. The singers are first rated as well, like the japanese tenor Makoto Sakurada in the role of Pietro

Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin returns to Pentatone together with soprano Christina Landshamer, presenting La Passione, a collection of dazzling concert arias on love, longing and loss by Mozart, Beethoven and Haydn, paired with the latter’s “La Passione” Symphony. Ranging from pastoral simplicity to exuberant outrage, the programme offers some of the finest vocal writing around 1800, including some of Beethoven’s rare and little-known excursions to Italian bravura opera, as well as one of the most dramatic and expressive symphonies of the eighteenth-century.

The starting point for Barbara Hannigan’s third recording for Alpha is a work by Gérard Grisey (1946-98) that is particularly close to her heart. Grisey wrote: ‘I conceived the Quatre Chants pour franchir le seuil [Four songs for crossing the threshold] as a musical meditation on death in four parts: the death of the angel, the death of civilisation, the death of the voice and the death of humanity… Luigi Nono (1924-90) was a politically engaged composer. His stunning monody Djamila Boupacha, a heart-rending cry for solo soprano, pays tribute to a freedom fighter tortured by French paratroopers during the Algerian war; Picasso also portrayed her in charcoal. Once again Barbara Hannigan both sings and directs this pair of twentieth-century works with her friends of the Ludwig Orchestra. She has chosen to couple them with a Classical symphony by the master of the genre, Joseph Haydn, which also deals with the theme of the Passion. Her interpretation is extremely intense and highly personal.

JJohann Gottlieb Naumann, a contemporary of Joseph Haydn, was associated with Dresden, worked in Sweden and travelled in Italy. In his Passione di Gesù Cristo he concentrates on smaller scale emotions and conflicts – albeit in the context of the (conventional) Passion story. It was written, probably, in 1767. That’s quite an undertaking for a twenty-six year old, although Naumann already had several other vocal and choral successes to his name.

This the work was first given in Vienna during Holy Week, 1729, the first of many collaborations between Caldara and Metastasio. Mention of the great librettist provides a prompt that my original review failed to stress the outstanding qualities of the text. Divided into two halves, the first part of the oratorio relates the story of the crucifixion as witnessed through the eyes of Mary Magdalene, John, and Joseph of Arimathea, who respond to the eager questioning of the remorseful Peter. The second part consists of philosophical commentary on the meaning of the crucifixion. Particularly in Part I, Metastasio draws on vivid imagery to convey the full horror of the event. Here, for example, is John describing the nailing to the cross: "… and some hardened, loutish men, sweating as they worked, bathed his face with their foul perspiration."