Mayr’s main claim to
fame is that he was Donizetti’s teacher.
Though renowned for his operas (Opera
Rara released Medea in Corinto
some years ago) he had a career
in sacred music in parallel to his operatic
vocation, spending most of his working
life at the Basilica of Sta. Maria Maggiore
in Bergamo. Before the Bergamo appointment
he lived and worked in Venice where
his first opera, Saffo,
was premiered and where he wrote a number
of oratorios. Guild have already issued
a recording of Mayr’s La Passione
which was written at this period (review
of the recording). They have followed
this up with this recording of Sisara,
written in 1793, the year before
La Passione. Sisara
was written for the Ospedale dei Mendicanti,
one of the four music conservatories
in Venice concerned with orphans, so
Mayr restricted himself to just female
voices.
Like the Guild recording
of La Passione this recording
is directed by Franz Hauk. Both were
recorded at the Asam Kirche in Ingoldstadt,
but for these discs Hauk is working
with a new group, the Academia I Filarmonici
di Verona.
The plot tells the
Biblical story of Jael (Jahel in this
version) and Sisara, from the Book of
Judges (chapter 4). The Israelites are
subjects of the King of Canaan; Jahel
pretends to be in love with Sisara the
commander of the King of Canaan’s forces.
She lures Sisara to her tent and kills
him - driving a tent-peg through his
heart. The rather similar story of Judith
and Holofernes had already been the
subject of a Venetian oratorio, written
by Vivaldi for the Ospedale dei Pieta
and similarly scored for female voices.
Both are strangely gruesome stories
for female educational institutions.
Mayr was just seven
years younger than Mozart and Sisara
is notable for its Mozartian
cast. Time and again his inventive orchestration
recalls Mozart, for example in the prominent
wind parts in Jahel’s aria Quercus
annos elata in Act 1. The recitatives
are generally accompanied and there
are a number of extended ariosos. Sisara’s
Act 1 recitative Qualis sit locus
iste has a most attractive Gluckian
accompaniment. It must be admitted though,
that the vocal lines rarely match the
imagination of these ritornelli. But
amongst the other notable features is
a pair of charming, brief duets separated
by a short recitative, a delightful
device. Act 1 closes with an almost
operatic ensemble for Jael, Sisara,
Thamar and Dina.
A notable moment in
Act 2 is the strikingly orchestrated
arioso for Sisara, Quod Silentium
as he lies troubled, trying to sleep.
The dirty deed is done in a quite short,
rather understated recitative; dramatic
verisimilitude does not seem to have
been Mayr’s intention. The oratorio
concludes with celebratory arias for
Jahel and for the prophetess Debbora
and a final chorus.
The singers are all
quite adequate, giving creditable performances,
and make a well balanced cast. Vanessa
Barkowski as Sisara is the only mezzo;
all the other singers are sopranos and
three of them double up on roles, so
that unless you are paying attention
to the libretto it can be difficult
to follow. Mayr’s vocal writing, whilst
not outstandingly virtuoso, includes
some notable coloratura sections. All
manage these decently though with a
little bit of smudging.
The small choir of
upper voices has very little to do.
The Accademia I Filarmonici di Verona
is a small group, comprising just twenty
instrumentalists. They respond energetically
to some of Hauk’s crisper tempi, but
the strings are not without hints of
untidiness. As the strings do not use
vibrato, I could have wished for the
refulgence of tone that a few extra
players would have brought. The wind
players respond well to the opportunities
afforded them by Mayr’s orchestration.
It is enterprising
of Guild to offer us another of Mayr’s
early oratorios and this creditable
recording helps us get a more balanced
view of Mayr as a composer. But he wrote
sacred music right up until his death
in 1845 and it would be useful if more
of these mature works could be released
from the archives.
Robert Hugill
Simon Mayr Choir
