Giacomo Carissimi - Judicium Extremum; Jonas, Jephte

Giacomo Carissimi (1605-1674)

Judicium Extremum

Jonas

Jephte

His Majesties Sagbutts And Cornetts, Monteverdi Choir 

Members Of The English Baroque Soloists

John Eliot Gardiner ‎

Carissimi’s Counterreformation Austerity

The music of Giacomo Carissimi is tough going for today’s music listeners. Originating from austere counterreformation Rome, it combines early stage baroque harmony with extensive recitatives. Carissimi focuses on the text, the music playing a secondary role, with occasional flourishes in the form of solo melody and choral sections. This is attributed to Carissimi’s desire to avoid obscuring the truth of the Bible with artistic flourishes – the text is paramount.

This description is particularly true of the oratorio “Jonas”, placed second in this disc from John Eliot Gardiner. “Jonas” is plain spoken harmonically. There is little of the chromatic ostentation one can hear in the slightly earlier sacred music of Claudio Monteverdi. Carissimi’s most famous single work, the oratorio “Jephte” (1648), found third here, is more attractive and comprehensible, at least to me, because it has more flourishes and chromatic touches. In particular, the final chorus, “Plorato filii Israel”, a lament with the stepwise descending bass line typical of baroque depictions of tragedy, is what amounts to a “hit” for Carrissimi. The sequence leading up to this chorus, solos from the Filii, sung by Ruth Holton, and choral interjections, including an Echo section which duplicates an ornamental line by the Filli, is as emotional and colorful as Carissimi gets. This concluding section of “Jephte” is quite beautiful, no doubt about it.

Gardiner has opted to place an oratorio that is little known even for a Carissimi work at the head of this release, “Judicium Extremium.” I was unable to locate a score for this composition but in any case it is relatively colorful, with an attractive opening instrumental section. Unlike “Jephte”, though, it doesn’t seem to have much harmonic variety.

Successful performance of Carissimi depends heavily on the solo singers. This disc is helped by some strong soloists, including the well-known British baritone Stephen Varcoe, bass Mark Tucker and soprano Ruth Holton all of whom do nice work. I am no fan of Gardiner but he does solid conducting here, although tempi tend towards the slow. A competitive “Jephte” from the Canadian group Les Voix Baroques is done more quickly, allowing the introductory scenes to fly by. On the other hand, I thought Gardiner’s final chorus was simply more attractive and moving than the one from Les Voix Baroques.

So this is a good though not perfect performance of some difficult and remote music from a very distant time and culture. The disc I think suffers from some mediocre sound engineering –soggy and a bit muffled – which doesn’t help. But if you are interested in Carissimi, check out “Jephte”.

Review from Amazon.com