Perhaps you’ve heard Vivaldi’s unrelentingly popular Gloria just about ten too many times and wonder why no one focuses on the composer’s dozens of other vocal and choral works. Well, here is a recording that not only may restore your enthusiasm for the Gloria (which really is a fine if insanely over-done piece) but also acknowledges a few other sacred items in the Vivaldi catalog that justly deserve attention. The first movement of the Kyrie RV 587 for double choir and two orchestras sounds more like Mozart of the Requiem than a creation from nearly 70 years earlier, and its opening, wildly meandering, richly scored chord progression seems as if it never will settle on a home key (which eventually turns out to be G minor). The Credo RV 591 won’t leave anyone napping when confronted with its furiously rushing opening and closing expositions–and this often-interminable section of the mass passes pleasantly and painlessly with some remarkably varied and sensitively scored Et incarnatus est and Crucifixus passages. While Vivaldi’s only setting of the Magnificat may not have the enduring impact and ingeniously resourceful economy of Bach’s better-known D major version, it’s full of terrific and memorable music–including a nifty unison Deposuit potentes and irresistibly catchy Sicut locutus est–that bears far more respect than today’s choruses acknowledge.
The big work, the Gloria, makes a grand impression here, largely because–and please forgive the cliché–this outstanding choir and orchestra perform it with the kind of enthusiasm and energy and commitment that you expect from the first performance of a brand new piece. As one who swore off this work years ago, I was surprised to discover an immediate, reaffirming appreciation in this fresh, vital, well-paced rendition (generally more brisk than Harnoncourt’s dramatic and lively reading–my other favorite Gloria). The singing throughout couldn’t be more accomplished, the detail of every line more clearly defined, or the purity of the voices more uniform and delightful to the ear. Conductor Tõnu Kaljuste seems to have been guided by an aim toward clarity and simplicity–no big dramatic effects, no overwhelming instrumental, choral, or solo vocal forces to obscure the music’s inherent, unpretentious beauty or to complicate its rather straightforward forms. The sound is ideal, perfectly complementing music, voices, and instruments.
