Feliz Navidad! Mexican Baroque Music for Christmas
Elena Harsányi (soprano), Caroline Marçot (alto), André Cruz (tenor), Thomas Bonni (bass)
Kölner Akademie/Michael Alexander Willens
rec. 2024, Deutschlandfunk Kammermusiksaal, Cologne, Germany
cpo 555 742-2 [63]
The season of Advent and Christmas in 18th century Latin America was possibly a richer period of the year, musically and ritualistically, than in Europe. It embraced a devotion to the Virgin Mary, as the Mother of Christ, almost as much as to the Saviour himself, since two important Marian feasts fall in December – the Immaculate Conception on the 8th, and the more regionally specific Virgin of Guadalupe on the 12th. Apart from the usual forms of sacred music, there was also the special genre of maitines or matins – despite its name, an evening service which could be the length of an opera or oratorio, and nearly as theatrical with its various elaborate liturgical sections.
Some of the most distinctive items in this recital, then, are the responsories and villancicos which come from those services by Ignacio Jerusalem (1764) and Manuel de Sumaya (c1736) – two composers who actually lived in New Spain, as Mexico was then known. The villancicos, in particular, are marked by the charming folkloristic character of their texts, in contrast with the settings of more formal rites as laid down by elite ecclesiastical tradition, as in the Mass and Dixit Dominus here by the Madrid-based composers José de Nebra and Francisco Corselli respectively.
The Kölner Akademie’s performances of Sumaya’s villancicos on this disc are distinguished by their ebullience, of which Albricias mortales and Celebran, publiquen take on additional splendour with the contributions of the solo trumpet, as though standing in for angelic instruments heralding the good news, and played resplendently here. Michael Alexander Willens brings out a torrent of choral sonority and energy in the latter piece, taken to a higher level of breathless excitement in the near moto perpetuo rhythm of Angélicas milicias. By contrast, more decorum and reverence are expressed in the pieces by Jerusalem, for instance in the more sober and refined choral blend of Quem terra pontus sidera. The bugle referred to in the text of Rompa la esfera is realised by a solo horn, lending a warm-toned dignity to the piece, contrasting with its rhythmical syncopations later. Quae est ista quae ascendit is like a bass aria from a Baroque opera, with which Thomas Bonni has a genial way. Elsewhere, the solo singers – particularly the reedy sounding tenor André Cruz – have a more earthy manner of execution, in keeping with the music’s folklike character. Most of the pieces by Jerusalem and Sumaya featured on Chanticleer and Joseph Jennings’s 1998 recording of the Matins for the Virgin of Guadalupe on the Teldec label, but those somewhat cautious performances are outclassed by Willens’s more charismatic accounts.
In de Nebra’s Mass, although scored for more than one choir, the Kölner Akademie cultivate a well-blended and more refined tone, with an airy, translucent opening in the Kyrie, and a rarefied account of the choral parts of the Gloria (this is really a missa brevis, as no other sections of the ordinary of the mass are set). Horns, and a harp in the continuo, add a rustic character, though a more ostentatious, operatic character appears as the solo voices step forward in several arias, such as a sparkling ‘Laudamus te’ from soprano Elena Harsányi. The ensemble rise to the grandeur of Corselli’s Dixit Dominus with a performance of resounding joy, doing justice to the portentously ascending theme of ‘Juravit Dominus’. Although a much briefer setting, it’s by no means a negligible counterpart when set beside Handel’s.
Throughout the disc Willens’s interpretations strike a fine balance between fastidiousness in execution, and colour and exuberance in musical quality.
Curtis Rogers
Buying this recording via the link below generates revenue for MWI, which helps the site remain free
Contents
Ignacio Jerusalem (1707-1769)
Romap la esfera
Manuel de Sumaya (c1678-1755)
Albricias mortales
Ignacio Jerusalem
Quem terra pontus sidera
Francisco Corselli (1705-1778)
Dixit Dominus
Ignacio Jerusalem
Elegi et sanctificavi
Manuel de Sumaya
Celebren, publiquen, entonan y canten
Ignacio Jerusalem
Quae est ista quae ascendit
Manuel de Sumaya
Angélicas Milicias
José de Nebra (1702-1768)
Polychoral Mass in G major
