HANDEL VIVALDI Dixit Dominus hwv 232 Dixit Dominus rv 807 In furore iustissimae irae rv 626 La Nuova Musica Lucy Crowe soprano dir. DAVID BATES 1 VIVALDI / HANDEL / Dixit Dominus / LA NUOVA MUSICA / David Bates HMU 807587 © harmonia mundi ANTONIO VIVALDI (1678-1741) Dixit Dominus rv 807 1 Dixit Dominus (chorus) 1’51 2 Donec ponam inimicos tuos (chorus) 3’34 3 Virgam virtutis tuae (soprano I) 3’06 4 Tecum principium in die virtutis (tenor I & II) 2’08 5 Juravit Dominus (chorus) 2’12 6 Dominus a dextris tuis (tenor I) 1’54 7 Judicabit in nationibus (chorus) 2’48 8 De torrente in via bibet (countertenor) 3’20 9 Gloria Patri, et Filio (soprano I & II) 2’27 10 Sicut erat in principio (chorus) 0’33 11 Amen (chorus) 2’47 In furore iustissimae irae rv 626* 12 In furore iustissimae (aria) 4’55 13 Miserationem Pater piissime (recitative) 0’39 14 Tunc meus fletus evadet laetus (aria) 6’58 15 Alleluia 1’28 GEORGE FRIDERIC HANDEL (1685-1759) Dixit Dominus hwv 232 16 Dixit Dominus (chorus) 5’49 17 Virgam virtutis tuae (countertenor) 2’49 18 Tecum principium in die virtutis (soprano I) 3’31 19 Juravit Dominus (chorus) 2’37 20 Tu es sacerdos in aeternum (chorus) 1’19 21 Dominus a dextris tuis (SSTTB & chorus) 7’32 22 De torrente in via bibet (soprano I, II & chorus) 3’55 23 Gloria Patri, et Filio (chorus) 6’33 La Nuova Musica *with Lucy Crowe soprano 12-15 DAVID BATES director Anna Dennis, Helen-Jane Howells, Augusta Hebbert, Esther Brazil, sopranos Christopher Lowrey, countertenor Simon Wall, Tom Raskin, tenors James Arthur, bass 2 VIVALDI / HANDEL / Dixit Dominus / LA NUOVA MUSICA / David Bates HMU 807587 © harmonia mundi Dixit Dominus ithin the Roman Catholic liturgy Psalm 109 aria in Vivaldi’s opera La fida ninfa (1732). This third setting, an important church festival at the behest of Cardinal Pietro (110 in Protestant Bibles), Dixit Dominus (‘The too, was certainly not composed for the Pietà (which could Ottoboni, a leading patron of music. WLord said unto my Lord’), has the distinction of never have mustered the two agile tenors needed for the ‘Tecum This setting of Psalm 109 is more overtly dramatic than any having been set to music more often than any other. The reason principium’), but its original destination remains a mystery. of Vivaldi’s, and whatever it lacks in pomp it compensates for by is simple: it so happens that within the cycle of five psalms Its fine musical qualities have enabled rv 807 to establish a display of fierce energy: Handel’s deity is more vengeful than sung daily at Vespers the Dixit Dominus is prescribed as the itself quickly in the Baroque choral repertoire. Two movements majestic. Its superbly inventive first movement makes reference invariable opening psalm, whereas the choice of the remaining in particular stand out: the eighth, ‘De torrente in via bibet’, to the emerging style of the instrumental concerto but also four alters from day to day. Eighteenth-century musical settings where Vivaldi vividly conveys the gentle lapping of the waters of makes obeisance to ecclesiastical tradition by introducing the of this psalm tend to be grandiose, often featuring one or more a brook through an exquisitely fashioned, though astonishingly plainsong melody of the Fourth Psalm Tone as a cantus firmus: trumpets, and generally festive in mood. This conventional simple, string accompaniment, and the concluding fugue on just as in Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610–11, archaic and novel character arises from three separate factors. First, the Dixit the words of the Doxology, which is perhaps the most splendid elements unite startlingly in an original synthesis. The percussive Dominus, as an introductory piece, needs to deploy the full advertisement for Vivaldi’s contrapuntal abilities in the whole of repetition of the word ‘Dixit’ as a kind of refrain testifies to musical resources and serve, so to speak, as a fanfare for what his œuvre. Handel’s extraordinary feeling for the sound of words. Instances follows; second, the seven verses of the text (to which the two At the Pietà and later Vivaldi contributed extensively to of felicitous word-painting abound in the vocal and instrumental of the Lesser Doxology, beginning ‘Sicut erat in principio’, are the genre known as the solo motet. Motets were settings for solo parts alike. What could be more expressionistic than the brutal always added) have a regal – indeed, imperious and forceful – voice and accompaniment (usually just strings and continuo) repetition of the syllable ‘con-’ in the semiverse ‘conquassabit content; finally, the sixth verse, ‘Judicavit in nationibus’, refers to of extra-liturgical texts inserted into the service at appropriate capita in terra multorum’? Yet there are also meltingly lyrical Judgement Day, a context where the temptation to use an actual points – for instance, after the Credo at Mass or between psalms interludes, such as the ‘Tecum principium’ for soprano solo. One trumpet to represent the ‘Last Trump’ proves almost irresistible. at Vespers. These texts, written in an often execrable Latin, were would need no more than this composition to demonstrate the The Venetian composer Antonio Vivaldi produced three commonly the work of local poetasters. All Vivaldi’s motets expressive range, technical mastery and, above all, self-confidence surviving settings of the Dixit Dominus, all in D major and follow a standard four-movement plan in which the first and of the young Handel as he strove to outdo his Italian peers in very similar to each other in general conception and sometimes third movements are arias (well contrasted in tempo, metre their own back yard. actual thematic content. The earliest, listed as rv 595 in the and mood), the second a connecting recitative and the last an standard Vivaldi catalogue of Peter Ryom, dates from the exuberant ‘Alleluia’ resembling a concerto movement. The paper – MIChael TalBOT composer’s apprentice years as a producer of sacred vocal on which Vivaldi wrote out In furore iustissimae irae, rv 626, music – the period from 1713 to 1717 when, during the absence shows that it was composed during one of his visits to Rome of the choirmaster of the Ospedale della Pietà, the Venetian during the 1722–23 and 1723–24 carnival seasons. This is a institution for foundlings where Vivaldi taught the violin, he motet so unspecific in its poetic content as to be appropriate for took over the latter’s compositional duties. The second, for any occasion. Essentially, the singer, a soprano, thanks God for double choir (rv 594), dates from the late 1720s or early 1730s not visiting his wrath on her (or him – the original singer was and was clearly not written for the Pietà. The third rv( 807, most likely a castrato) and expresses due contrition. The music, heard on this recording) was discovered in Dresden as recently which contains Vivaldi’s characteristic mixture of brio and as 2005 by the Australian scholar Janice Stockigt; the failure tenderness, wins over the listener immediately by its intensity to identify it earlier stemmed from the fact that the owner of and unfussy directness. the Venetian copying shop that supplied the work to the Saxon Handel’s choice of G minor (rather than the more usual C court falsified its authorship, attributing the setting to Vivaldi’s or D major) as the key of his Dixit Dominus, hwv 232, which younger contemporary Baldassare Galuppi. The correctness is by far the most ambitious and impressive of the works for of the work’s attribution to Vivaldi rests not only on a general the Catholic rite he composed during his visit as a young man stylistic similarity to his music but also on multiple thematic to Italy, exemplifies his independence of mind and willingness links, the most obvious of which is the basing of its sixth to ignore convention. He finished it in Rome in April 1707; movement, ‘Dominus a dextris tuis’, on the outer section of an current opinion among scholars is that he probably wrote it for 3 VIVALDI / HANDEL / Dixit Dominus / LA NUOVA MUSICA / David Bates HMU 807587 © harmonia mundi Dixit Dominus ans la liturgie catholique romaine, le psaume 109 mouvement (« Dominus a dextris tuis ») donne la preuve la plus premier séjour en Italie. Le choix de la tonalité : sol mineur, et (110 selon la numérotation de la Bible protestante) se éclatante : il est basé sur la deuxième partie d’un air de l’opéra non les tonalités plus courantes de do ou de ré majeur, illustre Ddistingue par le nombre de mises en musique dont il vivaldien La fida ninfa (1732). Cette troisième version ne fut bien son indépendance d’esprit et son empressement à faire fi a été l’objet. La raison en est simple : le cycle de cinq psaumes certainement pas non plus composée pour les jeunes élèves de des conventions. La composition fut achevée à Rome en avril chantés aux vêpres quotidiennes commence invariablement la Pietà qui n’auraient jamais pu compter dans leurs rangs deux 1707. Les experts pensent aujourd’hui que Haendel la composa par le Dixit Dominus (« Paroles de l’Éternel à mon Seigneur »), ténors à l’agilité vocale requise pour le « Tecum principium », probablement pour une fête religieuse importante à la demande alors que le choix des quatre autres diffère chaque jour. Au mais sa destination originelle reste un mystère. du Cardinal Pietro Ottoboni, grand mécène et mélomane. dix-huitième siècle, les compositions musicales sur ce psaume Ce Dixit rv 807 s’est rapidement imposé dans le répertoire Plus ouvertement dramatique que celles de Vivaldi, cette avoisinent le grandiose. Généralement festives, elles font choral baroque par ses qualités musicales.