Orazio Benevoli (1605-1672)
Missa Benevola
I Fagiolini, The City Musick/Robert Hollingworth
rec. 2024, Church of St Jude-on-the-Hill, Hampstead Garden Suburb, London
Texts and translations included
Reviewed as a digital download
Coro COR16208 [70]
This is the second mass for four choirs by Orazio Benevoli that Robert Hollingworth recorded for Coro. The first was the Missa Tu es Petrus (review). In the booklet to the present disc, there is a reference to that recording, which says: “The first in I Fagiolini’s new series of premiere recordings of multi-choir masses by mid-17th century Roman composer Orazio Benevoli.” From that we may conclude that there is more to come. Benevoli composed eight such masses, so that will keep Hollingworth busy for a few years.
Benevoli was not the only composer in Rome who wrote such large-scale works. They were part of a tradition which musicologists have labelled ‘colossal Baroque’. The use of the technique known as cori spezzati is mostly associated with Venice, but Rome had its own polychoral tradition. Palestrina composed some music for double choir, and composers of the next generation followed his example. There was one important difference between Venetian and Roman polychorality: Venetian composers sometimes divided the ensemble in groups of different scorings, such as a choir of higher voices vs one of lower voices (for instance SSAT vs ATBB); composers in Rome mostly split the ensemble in two equal groups. After the first quarter of the 17th century, polychorality became a marginal phenomenon in Venice, but continued to be popular elsewhere- and with his four choirs Benevoli was even modest; some works performed in Rome were set for up to twelve choirs.
The mass performed here has been preserved in different sources with two titles: Missa Maria prodigio celeste (Mary, celestial prodigy) and Missa Benevola. “The second hints at a particular connection with the composer (his own affection for it, or other people’s) but it could also mean ‘benevolent’, referring to the nurturing character of the Virgin Mary”, Hollingworth writes in his liner-notes. Both indicate that the mass was intended for a Marian feast, probably the Assumption (15 August).
The mass consists of the usual sections. However, there are some differences with masses written elsewhere. In Rome, the Benedictus was omitted; instead, an Elevation motet was performed, and the Agnus Dei includes just one invocation; the third, ending with the prayer for peace, is omitted.
In the Baroque period, composers liked to illustrate elements in the text, but the Mass does not offer that many opportunities to do so. Moreover, masses for multiple choirs focused on the splendour of the performing forces, and in that way the power of the Church, which was a major aim of the Counter Reformation. However, the use of several choirs offered some possibilities to emphasize words or phrases through the combination of several or all choirs. In the Credo, the phrase “descendit de caelis” (came down from heaven) is depicted by a descending figure. The words “non erit finis” (shall have no end) are graphically illustrated by an extended musical phrase. Notable is Kyrie I for its fugal opening, in which one choir after the other enters. In Kyrie II the fugal theme is held on very long notes by the sopranos of the four choirs in the way of a cantus firmus. In the Credo the statement of the incarnation is set in a modest and rather intimate way, as was the custom in masses, whereas in the Crucifixus the number of voices is reduced, here to four sopranos from each of the choirs.
In addition, this recording offers three works by Giacomo Carissimi, who also worked in Rome and was born in the same year as Benevoli. Whereas the latter has become best-known for his large-scale sacred music, Carissimi earned a reputation with his oratorios. Although he did not invent this genre, he was its main exponent in the mid-17th century, and some of his works have become very famous. One of them concludes this disc. Jephthah is one of the best-known characters from the Old Testament, and has been the subject of many compositions; in the 18th century Handel wrote an oratorio on the same subject. The story of Jephthah is a chance of a lifetime for a composer of Carissimi’s dramatic talent. It has everything: a social outlaw is asked to be at the head of his people in war, and leads it to victory, only to find out then that the jubilation is short-lived as he has to sacrifice his daughter to God as a consequence of his own thoughtless vow. Carissimi has exploited the contrasts in this story to the full.
The Historia di Jephte starts with the Historicus telling that the people of Israel are suppressed by the Ammonites and that the ‘Spirit of the Lord’ came upon Jephtha and that he promises the Lord: “If the Lord shall deliver the children of Ammon into my hands, I promise that whatever comes first to me from my home shall be sacrificed to the Lord”. Then follows the description of the battle with the Ammonites, in a sequences of choruses and soli, written in the stile concitato. What follows then is a very moving description of the lament of the Ammonites, where Carissimi makes use of a four-note bass figure which is often used in laments in the 17th century. When Jephtha returns home he is greeted by his daughter, leading the jubilations of the people. However, when he has to tell his daughter about his vow to God, the music shifts from major to minor. In Jephtha’s daughter’s lament of her fate – “Plorate colles, dolete montes” – Carissimi uses another popular phenomenon in Italian dramatic music of the early baroque: the echo. And then the chorus joins her: “Plorate, filii Israel, plorate, omnes virgines”. Here, Carissimi returns to the bass figure he used in the description of the lamenting Ammonites.
Whereas this work is often performed and recorded, the rest of Carissimi’s oeuvre is much less well known. Paratum cor meum is a setting of verses from four Psalms: “My heart is ready, O God, my heart is ready; I will sing and make music as I give glory.” It is scored for a solo voice, violin and basso continuo. It has been preserved in two versions: one for soprano, and one for bass. The latter is performed here. The voice part includes virtuosic coloratura, and is a brilliant example of the monodic style that had conquered Italy since the beginning of the 17th century.
Super flumina Babylonis is a setting of one of the best-known Psalms: 137 (136 in the Vulgata; not 139 as the liner-notes have it). It is about the Jews lamenting their fate during the Babylonian Captivity. The text is extended with other texts which allows Carissimi to create a dialogue. The words of the Jews are sung by soprano and mezzo-soprano, the words of their captors by tenor and bass. In the first half the words “How shall we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land?” are repeated several times as a reply to the order to “sing us the Lord’s song”. In the second half the phrase “We have hung up our harps, and our lyre is turned to mourning” is used as a refrain, and in the end the four singers join on this text, closing the piece. It is an example how Carissimi uses his dramatic skills to make a little scene out of a Psalm.
As I mentioned, the main aim of masses of such proportions as Benevoli’s Missa Benevola is to impress the audience with the splendour of the music and the performance. That comes off well here. Obviously it is impossible to create the same effects on disc as in a spatial church, but the recording engineers have done a splendid job; the mass has the effect that it should have. It is also interesting that, despite the similarity in scoring, the masses have a character of their own. It is nice that Hollingworth, in his liner-notes, points out several features that are typical of this mass. Some of them I have mentioned above. Carissimi’s Jephte receives a dramatic performance; the roles of Jephthah and his daughter are excellently realized by Greg Skidmore and Julia Doyle respectively. Frederick Long is impressive in his treatment of the coloratura in Paratum cor meum.
There are two issues. Some of the singers are not free of vibrato, which is sometimes too discernible. Overall it does not really damage the performances. More serious is the use of percussion in Jephte. It is not required, and I can’t see any reason to use it. The words of Jephtha’s daughter, “Start the beating of tambourines and striking of cymbals!”, need not to be illustrated by percussion. That is just too demonstrative. The words are depicted in the music; suggestion is an important instrument of expression.
Even so, these performances are enjoyable and an impressive display of the skills of two 17th century composers from Rome.
Johan van Veen
www.musica-dei-donum.org
twitter.com/johanvanveen
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Contents
Orazio Benevoli
Missa Benevola:
Kyrie
Gloria
Giacomo Carissimi (1605-1674)
Paratum cor meum
Orazio Benevoli
Missa Benevola:
Credo
Giacomo Carissimi
Super flumina Babylonis
Orazio Benevoli
Missa Benevola:
Sanctus
Agnus Dei
Giacomo Carissimi
Historia di Jephte
