Ostensibly, the reason for placing Hasse and Zelenka together on this CD is to highlight the work of two composers who held positions at the Dresden court during one of its most artistically rich periods (1730s and ’40s), the former as Kapellmeister and the latter in the lowlier position of church composer. However, their music couldn’t be more different–nor, considering its excellent quality, could its centuries-long neglect be more puzzling. Adding to the interest is the fact that the work of the older composer (Zelenka) is more adventurous and striking in its originality than that of the younger, and at the time far more highly-regarded Hasse.
The Hasse Miserere is solid, tuneful, expertly crafted, and surprisingly buoyant for such weighty texts–a model of Italian-influenced late-Baroque style that can stand proudly among the period’s more worthy church compositions. The three movements at the heart of the work are particularly memorable, with some exceptionally lovely solo vocal writing. The Benigne fac Domine is reminiscent of Mozart’s more energetic writing in his masses and Requiem. And the Gloria Patri alto solo is a gem, beautifully interpreted here by countertenor Kai Wessel.
But if you think this is glorious music, you ain’t heard nothin’ yet. In fact, if you think you know Baroque choral music and you haven’t heard Zelenka’s Missa Dei Filii, then you’ve still got a lot to learn. In another life as a teacher, I was often frustrated when ill-informed students would make the pronouncement that they didn’t like classical music because “it was boring”. Would that I had had a portable CD player and this Zelenka recording in my back pocket. A few minutes with this music and those students would be both apologizing and thanking me for opening their provincial ears to a whole new world.
While the opening Kyrie sections are good enough, the seven-part Gloria is a knockout, containing some of the most gripping, catchy, electrifying music Bach, Handel, and Vivaldi never wrote. As if the opening Gloria in excelsis Deo, for chorus and SATB soloists, weren’t exciting enough, or the following Qui tollis peccata mundi for soprano, tenor, and bass didn’t totally captivate us with its swooping chromatic string lines and dramatic solos (soprano Heike Hallaschka is excellent here)–the 28-second choral Quoniam tu solus sanctus sets us up for an absolutely sublime alto aria that rivals Handel at his most operatically inspired.
But wait: what comes next–Cum Sancto Spiritu–is a choral finale to end all Baroque choral finales. What begins as a one-note fugue literally explodes into a heart-racing six and one half minutes of glorious musical fireworks that really can’t be compared to anything else by anyone else. Ferocious rhythmic drive, melodic brilliance, and sheer mastery of vocal and instrumental technique (and the willingness to occasionally violate formal rules of harmony and phrase structure) combine with the outstanding performances of the Dresden forces to produce a rare, edge-of-the-seat conclusion to a terrific CD.
Although Zelenka’s mass comes to us with only two surviving (or completed) movements, the Gloria deserves to be performed and recorded at least as often as, say, Bach’s justly revered Magnificat, which for its variety, concision, sectionalized structure, and near-theatrical conceptualization is the only remotely comparable contemporaneous work. If you haven’t heard this yet, what are you waiting for? [5/31/2003]
