Search - Antonio Caldara, Valentino Ermacora, Orchestra barocca "Il Cimento degli Affetti" :: Antonio Caldara: Musica sacra

High Baroque Drama

Giordano Bruno | Wherever I am, I am. | 02/27/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Antonio Caldara's music is as overwrought as the cover art of this CD. Have you ever seen the sculpture of Giacomo Bernini, all full of writhing raptures and tortured nudity? That's Caldara in marble. But both Bernini and Caldara were consumate craftsmen in their art. There's no sleeping through a Caldara mass, even for one of lukewarm faith.



As if to prove Caldara's High Baroque credentials, this performance begins with an instrumental sonata full of dramatic eccentricities. One recognizes immediately that Caldara was fearless in his use of colorful chromatics and dynamite dynamics. The music is great stuff, and the interpretation is well conceived. The execution, however, is ever so slightly rough. The string timbre is ever so slightly harsh, which is what prevents me from giving this CD an unequivocal five stars.



The same virtues and shortcomings persist in the mass and the motets that fill out the disk - very fine interpretation but slightly rough sonority. There are minor shortfalls in pitch at times in the choir, which otherwise I could praise exuberantly for its rhythmic vitality. Many listeners, perhaps most, will be less demanding about pitch than I am, and will enjoy the robust, full-throated timbre of this choir. I certainly recommend this disk, but if you are searching for the one best example of Antonio Caldara's genius, then I'd suggest the performance of cantatas by Caldara and Stradella, performed by Il Seminario Musicale, which I've also reviewed."