Search - Gioachino Rossini, Herbert Handt, Virtuosi Di Praga :: Messa di Gloria & Tantum ergo (Rossini in Wildbad 1999)

Finally, a worthy successor to Handt's original recording

Larry VanDeSande | Mason, Michigan United States | 07/21/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Conductor and tenor Herbert Handt, who leads the performances here, discovered Rossini's "sacred" gloria mass in 1976 and recorded it the next year for Philips on what is still the best recording of the masterpiece. Unfortunately, Handt's recording has long been out of print, appearing once briefly in the CD era about 1991 and departing soon after. There are no known used copies of the Philips CD in existence.



I paid a fellow to transfer my old LP to CD some years back to ensure I had a longlasting version of the original score, which Handt recorded with a starry cast incluidng tenors Ugo Benelli and John Mitchinson. While the soprano aria "Laudamus te" shows up on a lot of sopranoes' greatest hits CDs, it is the tenors that carry this music, especially in the wonderful "Qui tollis" section that requires a tenor to perform acrobatic vocal stunts at the end.



With Handt's original long gone, there have been a number of other recordings over the years. Studio recordings led by Neville Marriner and violinist Salvatore Accardo did not reinvent the joie de vive of Handt's performance, and a more recent recording led by Wilhelm Keitel on the Arte Nova label was exceptionally well sung and well recorded but too Germanic to transfer the Italianate felicities in the score. Riccardo Chailly, an Italian conductor that specializes in Rossini rarities, has never recorded the Messe di Gloria. I'm sure he would do well in this music. Chailly has recorded "Tantum ergo", the makeweight to Handt's current CD.



Hanssler indicates the current CD was recorded in concert in 1999 and was produced the same year. I cannot verify it has been available in USA before now. I have searched for versions of this music since converting to CD and coming to Internet purchasing in the late 1990s and never before saw this performance available. It is one of a handful of recordings currently available of the Messe de Gloria including the Accardo and Marriner versions.



It is an outstanding performance, too. The choir and soloists all sing wonderfully and the tenors, Mario Zeffiri (tenor 1) and Pavel Baxa (2), perform magnificently. Zeffiri's singing at the end of the Qui tollis section is perhaps even better than Benelli's lung busting performance from 1977 and is recorded twice as well. The singers are all recorded clearly and somewhat closely and you can hear every word of their Latin, eliminating the need for a score or the notes, which are good and produced in five languages.



For those new to the Messe di Gloria, it is Rossini's most well-kept secret among his sacred works, in part because it is so operatic. The music projects more joy than Christian suffering and far more operatic vigor than religious piety. It is a delight to the ear that sounds more like a profane cantata than a gloria mass. The score's lack of religious dogma has never troubled me and it shouldn't trouble you, either, because this is one of the most wonderful unknown choral scores in all of classical music.



Now -- finally! -- it has been issued in a modern performance that lives up to the promise Handt first delivered in the era of disco with the equally well recorded and well sung Tantum ergo serving as a delightful encore. While there is a shortcoming in this performance --- orchestral tutti sometimes sounds muddy -- all the orchestral soloes are easy to hear and well done including the famous English horn solo during the Gratias section.



When I first played this in the "Matrix" output on my 5.1 system, it seemed like the soloists were recorded too closely and the orchestra too distantly. When I played it again in stereo and in the car, the sound seemed very natural and well balanced. This is a modern stereo, not SACD, production with good sound other than in the occasional orchestral tutti, the price often paid when recording a concert.



If you enjoy fine singing, choral music or have the least interest in an Italina mass, you should acquire this CD with haste. This is the first recording of this music to come into circulation in USA since the Keitel version on Arte Nova, which only lasted in the marketplace for a year or two. This music goes out of print quickly, so don't waste time if you want it."