The central work on this collection of seventeenth century vocal music is Carissimi's Jephte, a 25-minute oratorio, for voices and continuo, that swiftly and powerfully presents the biblical story of the warrior who prepares to sacrifice his daughter, Filla (Anne Grimm), in thanks for his success in battle. The entire group of soloists here achieves a pitch of sadness that takes over the work soon after its imposing beginning and infuses the series of declaimed utterances in which the story unfolds. The question for the potential buyer is whether he or she accepts the current fashion for performing Baroque oratorios with one voice to a part, with the choral sections taken by the united group of soloists. This procedure is more justifiable with Carissimi than it is with Bach, although an observer of the time indicated clearly that he heard the work performed by a group of some 20 singers. (The fact that it might, in a world devastated by war, famine, and plague, have been performed at times by smaller forces does not indicate that this was desired.) Anyhow, this disc by the Netherlands Bach Society and the performance of Jephte by Konrad Junghänel's Cantus Cölln are the discs of choice in the current style -- the added advantage here is a varied program featuring keyboard music and several "lamentations" that illustrate the sources of Carissimi's dramatic style. The opening Lamento della ninfa of Monteverdi is taken slowly, with a head-on approach to its excruciating dissonances. (There's also a much less well-known lament by Alessandro della Ciaia, a composer from Siena.) The sonic environment of this recording captures the large continuo group (organ, harpsichord, violone, theorbo, and cello) with a startling intimacy, and the long lament of Filla toward the end of Jephte, with its echo effects, is haunting indeed. An all-Carissimi disc by John Eliot Gardiner with his Monteverdi Choir can be sampled by listeners interested in comparing the present approach with one that assumes a greater degree of contrast between solo and chorus.
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