This CD is reissued by ArkivMusic.
Notes and Editorial Reviews
It’s a programme put together of sixteenth and seventeenth century music from the courts of Vienna and Salzburg with the musical influences on the composers represented, as well as the earlier chant that might have been heard in the course of the mass. The CD’s ‘title’ is Multichoral Sacred Works for Salzburg Cathedral and the Vienna Court Chapel. Biber and Schmelzer take the lion’s share of this CD, though they are nicely complemented by Palestrina and Froberger. A very satisfying little mosaic and expertly played, this CD is thoroughly recommended on all counts.
After a period as violinist at the Salzburg court, Biber became Kapellmeister there in 1684, a post which he held for the last twenty years of his life. Biber was a
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student of Schmelzer, although the latter is more closely associated with Vienna, the court at which Froberger also worked. Palestrina, of course, worked in Rome a generation or so earlier but was at the height of his influence when Biber, Schmelzer and Froberger were active.
These are exciting, atmospheric and persuasive performances. No comparative recordings of the major works here are in the current catalogue, although the Sonata No.12 from the Sacro-profanus is coupled with another outstanding Biber Mass, Christi Resurgentis by Manze and the English Concert on Harmonia Mundi (907397) and the Froberger is in volume 1 of Richard Egarr’s Complete Keyboard set on Globe (6022). For these two different reasons if this repertoire interests you or you are new to it and think you would enjoy the magnificence of mid-Baroque choral music, don’t hesitate to buy this excellent CD. Biber’s masses are only now beginning to be seen for what they are… splendid, committed and musically very compelling compositions that make particularly spectacular (though never showy) use of the words of the liturgy in a way that was not picked up again until the Bach Passions.
It’s a repertoire in which Junghänel is particularly at home and has built a solid reputation; his Schütz Symphoniae Sacre discs also on Harmonia Mundi being particularly fine. His direction here is firm and illuminating and it’s obvious he’s both at home in and genuinely revelling the music; the same goes for the singers, who are on top form.
The choral singing in the other music is clean, unforced and – as everything else on this offering – well-recorded (in a monastery whose acoustic is a delight and enhances the music). Wolfgang Glüxam’s brief appearance in the Froberger makes a telling interlude, though the atmosphere isn’t really interrupted. If this is the kind of music the Salzburg and Viennese court was used to, they were lucky indeed!
-- Mark Sealey, MusicWeb International
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Works on This Recording
1.
Missa alleluja by Heinrich Ignaz Biber
Conductor:
Konrad Junghänel
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Vienna Hofburgkapelle,
Gradus Ad Parnassum,
Concerto Palatino Choir
Period: Baroque
Written: 1698; Salzburg, Austria
Date of Recording: 05/1994
Venue: Melk Monastery, Austria
Length: 26 Minutes 44 Secs.
Language: Latin
2.
Vesperae Solennes by Johann Heinrich Schmelzer
Conductor:
Konrad Junghänel
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Vienna Hofburgkapelle,
Gradus Ad Parnassum,
Concerto Palatino Choir
Period: Baroque
Written: 17th Century; Austria
Date of Recording: 05/1994
Venue: Melk Monastery, Austria
Length: 19 Minutes 13 Secs.
Language: Latin
3.
Sacro-profanus concentus musicus: Sonata no 12 à 8 by Johann Heinrich Schmelzer
Conductor:
Konrad Junghänel
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Gradus Ad Parnassum
Period: Baroque
Written: by 1662; Austria
Date of Recording: 05/1994
Venue: Melk Monastery, Austria
Length: 4 Minutes 36 Secs.
4.
Urbs beata Jerusalem by Giovanni Palestrina
Conductor:
Konrad Junghänel
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Gradus Ad Parnassum
Period: Renaissance
Written: by 1589; Rome, Italy
Date of Recording: 05/1994
Venue: Melk Monastery, Austria
Length: 4 Minutes 1 Secs.
Language: Latin
5.
Libro secondo di toccate: Fantasia no 2 in a/e, FbWV 202 by Johann Jacob Froberger
Performer:
Wolfgang Glüxam (Organ)
Period: Baroque
Written: by 1649; Germany
Date of Recording: 05/1995
Venue: Melk Monastery, Austria
Length: 3 Minutes 50 Secs.
6.
Terribilis est locus iste by Anonymous
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Vienna Hofburgkapelle Choralschola
Period: Medieval
Date of Recording: 05/1994
Venue: Melk Monastery, Austria
Length: 2 Minutes 41 Secs.
Language: Latin
7.
Alleluia In dedicatione ecclesiae by Anonymous
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Vienna Hofburgkapelle Choralschola
Period: Medieval
Date of Recording: 05/1994
Venue: Melk Monastery, Austria
Length: 2 Minutes 14 Secs.
Language: Latin
8.
Stetit angelus iuxta aram templi by Anonymous
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Vienna Hofburgkapelle Choralschola
Period: Medieval
Date of Recording: 05/1994
Venue: Melk Monastery, Austria
Length: 2 Minutes 36 Secs.
Language: Latin
9.
Passer invenit sibi dominum by Anonymous
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Vienna Hofburgkapelle Choralschola
Period: Medieval
Date of Recording: 05/1994
Venue: Melk Monastery, Austria
Length: 1 Minutes 31 Secs.
Language: Latin
10.
Deus in adiutorium intende by Anonymous
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Vienna Hofburgkapelle Choralschola
Period: Medieval
Written: 14th Century
Date of Recording: 05/1994
Venue: Melk Monastery, Austria
Length: 0 Minutes 19 Secs.
Language: Latin
11.
Domus mea by Anonymous
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Vienna Hofburgkapelle Choralschola
Period: Medieval
Date of Recording: 05/1994
Venue: Melk Monastery, Austria
Length: 0 Minutes 16 Secs.
Language: Latin
12.
Haec est domus Domini by Anonymous
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Vienna Hofburgkapelle Choralschola
Period: Medieval
Date of Recording: 05/1994
Venue: Melk Monastery, Austria
Length: 0 Minutes 25 Secs.
Language: Latin
13.
Bene fundata est by Anonymous
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Vienna Hofburgkapelle Choralschola
Period: Medieval
Date of Recording: 05/1994
Venue: Melk Monastery, Austria
Length: 0 Minutes 15 Secs.
Language: Latin
14.
Lapides pretiosi by Anonymous
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Vienna Hofburgkapelle Choralschola
Period: Medieval
Date of Recording: 05/1994
Venue: Melk Monastery, Austria
Length: 0 Minutes 27 Secs.
Language: Latin
15.
O quam metuendus by Anonymous
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Vienna Hofburgkapelle Choralschola
Period: Medieval
Date of Recording: 05/1994
Venue: Melk Monastery, Austria
Length: 0 Minutes 38 Secs.
Language: Latin
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