Antonio Cesti (1623-1669)
Cantatas & Arias
Romabarocca Ensemble
rec. 2024, Oratorio dei Barnabiti, Rome Italy
Brilliant Classics 97222 [52]
The principal attraction of this release is the two serenatas for three voices by Cesti which bookend this compilation. Both are claimed to be receiving their first modern recordings here, which presumably means their first ever in historically informed performance practice. The practice adopted here can only be described as eccentric, at best. The singers have a hollow, loose tone that tends to wobble; the accompaniment by Lorenzo Tozzi on the harpsichord plods, rather than coaxing the voices into sharper dramatic life; and Renato Criscuolo’s continuo bass violin is gritty and unprepossessing, making a very off-putting growling sound to announce the presence of instruments once the vocal trio have first made their flabby musical presence known at the opening of the serenata ‘L’amante gigante’. The somewhat roomy acoustic of the recording venue doesn’t help, as it drains the performances of vitality in timbre.
On the soprano line, Lucia Casagrande Raffi is the cleaner and crisper of the three singers. She more deservedly receives the limelight in the arietta ‘Chi non prova star lontano’ and this intimate, authentic arrangement of the aria ‘Intorno all’idol mio’ from Cesti’s famous opera L’Orontea for voice and basso continuo alone (review), in which she is attentive to the expressive inflections of the text’s musical setting. Elisabetta Pallucchi is a waveringly effusive mezzo-soprano, rather than stylish and subtle, particularly in the second serenata ‘Venti, turbini, procelle’. Alessandro Pirozzi is a particularly woolly bass, whose drawling vocalism lacks timbral precision. Less strenuous performances from Raffi and Pirozzi, with a calmer bass violin, for the gentle melismas of the cantata ‘Per voler quel ch’io non voglio’ (possibly by Stradella) are a welcome relief, though the interpretation becomes workaday.
The aggressive tone of the bass violin comes into its own for the solo instrumental piece ‘La tromba’ by Giuseppe Colombi, imitating the trumpet of its title. In the sonata by Giovanni Lorenzo Lulier, Criscuolo plays in a more hollow fashion which holds back the music’s natural melodiousness (the last movement is denoted ‘Aria’) though there is a yearning quality to the Adagio.
Along with Cavalli, Cesti was an important link between Monteverdi and the high Baroque in the composition of Italian opera and vocal music. There’s certainly some enjoyable repertoire here, but it needs more incisive and charismatic performances, and there are better introductions to the composer’s work than this.
Curtis Rogers
Contents
Antonio Cesti (1623-1669)
L’amante gigant (Il Polifemo)
Chi non prova star lontano
Giuseppe Colombi (1635-1694)
La tromba
Antonio Cesti
Era la notte e muto
L’Orontea – ‘Intorno all’idol mio’
Giovanni Lorenzo Lulier (1662-1700)
Sonata for violone and basso continuo in F major
Antonio Cesti
Per voler quell ch’io non voglio
Venti, turbini, procelle
Performers
Lucia Casagrande Raffi (soprano), Elisabetta Pallucchi (mezzo-soprano), Alessandro Pirozzi (bass), Renato Criscuolo (bass violin), Lorenzo Tozzi (harpsichord and direction)
