History is full of examples of the collision of political events with musical fashion, and these solo cantatas–in Italian Baroque style, written by a Czech composer–provide yet another. Following the wars of Spanish succession, Czech lands were newly opened to Italian influences in the arts, particularly from Venice and Naples–and Josef Leopold Dukát (1684-1717), organist/choirmaster at the remote monastery of Želiv, seemed especially attracted to aspects of form and melody characteristic of Italian vocal music. Privileged to be educated at a Jesuit college, Dukát had the refined technical resources to produce works of respectable quality and the creativity to imbue them with some measure of originality. The seven works performed here (only a handful of Dukát’s compositions survive) come from an unpublished collection of 12 solo church cantatas, and their melodic fluidity and structural foundations–alternating recitatives and arias–show a composer highly accomplished in writing for voice as well as in dramatic text setting.
Best are the two settings for countertenor, partly due to Markus Forster’s agile, clear-toned voice, but also because these works seem to have been blessed with the loveliest tunes and most artful accompaniments. The melodic writing is hard to compare to that of any more-familiar composer of the period–but it bears something of the charm and certainly the theatrical sensibility of Handel’s early works in the genre. The other two vocal soloists–soprano Anna Hlavenková and bass Aleš Procházka–are pleasing of tone and competent enough technically, and they dispatch their varied if not extremely demanding lines well (allowing for occasional intonational lapses). The instruments–two violins, archlute, organ, and cello–prove more than sufficient to provide necessary support and color, and their role ranges from strictly harmonic (primarily in the recitatives) to one of more prominent, orchestra-like independence. The sound is just a bit too bright and resonant for the music and specific performing forces, a condition that’s particularly problematic during the bass cantatas. There’s nothing earth-shaking or revelatory here–but serious fans of Baroque vocal music undoubtedly will find these pieces (recorded here for the first time) worth investigating.
