Stradella: San Giovanni Battista

Stradella: San Giovanni Battista

Stradella: San Giovanni Battista
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CD Details

Composer: Alessandro Stradella
Conductor: Marc Minkowski
Performer: Les Musiciens du Louvre
Edition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 1992-08-04
Music Label: Erato
Soundtracks:
  1. San Giovanni Battista, oratorio: Sinfonia
  2. San Giovanni Battista, oratorio: Part 1: 'Amiche selve, addio'
  3. San Giovanni Battista, oratorio: Part 1: 'Selve beate, addio!'
  4. San Giovanni Battista, oratorio: Part 1: 'Soffin pur rabbioso fremiti'
  5. San Giovanni Battista, oratorio: Part 1: 'Madrigali a cinque'
  6. San Giovanni Battista, oratorio: Part 1: 'Invitto Erode'
  7. San Giovanni Battista, oratorio: Part 1: 'Volin 'pure lontano dal sen'
  8. San Giovanni Battista, oratorio: Part 1: 'Si, si dei tuoi devoti'
  9. San Giovanni Battista, oratorio: Part 1: 'Anco in Cielo il biondo Auriga'
  10. San Giovanni Battista, oratorio: Part 1: 'Sorde dive, ch'ai mortali'
  11. San Giovanni Battista, oratorio: Part 1: 'Non fia ver che mai si sciolga'
  12. San Giovanni Battista, oratorio: Part 1: 'S'uccida il reo'
  13. San Giovanni Battista, oratorio: Part 1: 'Freni, l'orgoglio'
  14. San Giovanni Battista, oratorio: Sinfonia
  15. San Giovanni Battista, oratorio: Part 2: 'Vaghe Ninfe del Giordano'
  16. San Giovanni Battista, oratorio: Part 2: 'Giorno si lieto in vero'
  17. San Giovanni Battista, oratorio: Part 2: 'Anco il sol fuor dell'usato'
  18. San Giovanni Battista, oratorio: Part 2: 'O di quest'occhi miei'
  19. San Giovanni Battista, oratorio: Part 2: 'Io, per me, non cangerei'
  20. San Giovanni Battista, oratorio: Part 2: 'Figlia, se un gran tesoro'
  21. San Giovanni Battista, oratorio: Part 2: 'Regnator glorioso'
  22. San Giovanni Battista, oratorio: Part 2: 'Nel seren de tuoi contenti'
  23. San Giovanni Battista, oratorio: Part 2: 'Queste lagrime e sospiri'
  24. San Giovanni Battista, oratorio: Part 2: 'In questa de miei affetti'
  25. San Giovanni Battista, oratorio: Part 2: 'Provi pur le miei vendetti'
  26. San Giovanni Battista, oratorio: Part 2: 'Il castigo d'un empio'
  27. San Giovanni Battista, oratorio: Part 2: 'Quando mai fia che morte'
  28. San Giovanni Battista, oratorio: Part 2: 'Morirai'
  29. San Giovanni Battista, oratorio: Part 2: 'Su coronatemi'
  30. San Giovanni Battista, oratorio: Part 2: 'Chi nel comun gioire'
  31. San Giovanni Battista, oratorio: Part 2: 'Che gioire'

Music reviews of Stradella: San Giovanni Battista

Music Review: Not the Same Old Johnny!
Rating: 5 Stars

John the Baptist has the first word in this curious oratorio. First in recitativo and then in aria, the Baptist bids farewell to the "friendly forests" of peace and tranquillity where he has found refuge amid scenes of delight. Huh? Forests in the deserts of the Holy Land? John's disciples, singing in chorus, beg him not to leave, but John tells them that no voyage and no north winds can frighten him, with God as his pilot.

That's only the beginning of the strangeness of Alessandro Stradella's 1675 "San Giovanni Battista." Don't expect the story to be exactly what you learned in Sunday School. You WILL need the libretto to appreciate the dramatic logic of the singing, especially of Salome, who is a cold-hearted vengeful gold-digger, and of Herod, who is patently 'mad' in the Medieval tradition of 'Mad King Herods.' Soprano Catherine Bott, who sings Salome, has the iciest coloratura this side of the Queen of the Night, and a knife-like precision with her displays of quick notes and ornamentations. Basso Philippe Huttenlocher, as Herod, rumbles and bellows comically, as befits his hapless character.

The oratorio genre of Stradella's era was essentially a back-door intrusion of operatic music into the pious world of Counter-reformation Catholicism. Oratorios were in Latin and were performed in the 'oratories' of churches, as a kind of semi-opera 'at the altar.' This oratorio is in Italian. The music, especially the arias of the Baptist, sounds remarkably pastoral. In every way, this is as much a 'mixed genre' theatrical event as a play by Shakespeare. One of the surprising glories of this work is the large number of ensemble pieces - duets, madrigals for five, arias split into dialogues - all of which relieve the Baroque predictability of recitativo and da capo solo aria. That's all the more reason, by the way, for needing the libretto.

Giovanni Battista is sung by male alto Gerard Lesne, with his usual palette of emotional subtleties. Such a sweet, soulful, velvety Prophet he is, this Baptist of Stradella's! Not the same voice in the wilderness that Richard Strauss heard! Lesne's arias and his ensemble pieces with the rest of the cast are the most luscious musical moments of the performance.

Stradella the man was something of a 'mixed genre' himself. Born into the minor Italian aristocracy in 1644, he was for a while one of the intimate circle of artistic types surrounding Queen Christina of Sweden in Roma. In 1669 he was part of a scheme to embezzle money from the Church, a criminal act that didn't interfere with his composition of numerous cantatas on sacred themes. When Pope Clement X declared 1675 a "Holy Year", Stradella was chosen to compose one of fourteen oratorios paid for the a confraternity of wealthy Florentines in Roma; San Giovanni Battista is that composition. From Roma, Stradella moved on to Venice, where he seduced his patron's mistress and fled with her to Turin. The patron, Alvise Contarini, hired assassins to kill Stradella for revenge, but they bungled the job, merely wounding him. Stradella took refuge in Genova, where another romantic escapade earned him another attack by thugs in the street, this time successful. He was 38 years old.

Stradella may have been the most famous of Baroque composers during the 19th Century, even though his music was never performed. At least two popular novels and three operas were composed around the tale of his life.

Superb singing, excellent orchestral support, and a unique dramatic concept make "San Giovanni Battista" quite an interesting recording. Get it in this 1992 package, before you're stuck with the current re-release.
More Stradella: San Giovanni Battista free music reviews:
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