Zeal Ardor

ZEAL & ARDOR might well be the very definition of eclectic. Feeling like the musical equivalent of Jack Skellington‘s Christmas ‘what’s this?’ experiment, Manuel Gagneux has toiled away over test tubes and vials to bubble and boil away yet another potent concoction of intelligent and unique ideas. Their eponymous full-length is now imminent, and frankly it highlights the band as some of the most prolific and exciting musicians on planet earth…

Hungarian conductor Pál Németh seems to be starting a series of larger-sacred works by Viennese composer Antonio Caldara. Coming on the heels of his Paschal work La passion di Gesù Cristo , likewise on Hungaroton, this particular oratorio features something that should resonate in Budapest, since it focuses on King Stephen, the country’s patron saint. Regardless of the subject matter, however, the work conforms to the typical Italian oratorio of the early 18th century, that is to say, a sacred mirror of the opera seria consisting of a series of da capo arias following recitatives.