Giacomo Carissimi was
born in 1605. The 400th anniversary
of his birth has been celebrated with
a flood of recordings. Most of them
are devoted to his oratorios, the genre
for which he was most famous. The present
disc sheds light on some of his other
sacred music, which until now has been
largely neglected: motets and sacred
concertos. It has to be added, though,
that there is no clear distinction between
these pieces and the oratorios. Some
of Carissimi's oratorios were also referred
to as motets, and some sacred concertos
on this disc are written in the form
of a dialogue, just like the oratorios.
In 1629 Carissimi became
‘maestro di cappella’ of the Jesuit
Collegio Germanico in Rome, and his
oratorios were performed in the Collegio.
His motets were written for the daily
services at the church of the Collegio,
the S. Apollinare. Most of Carissimi's
compositions were kept in the Collegio,
and when it was looted in 1773 his musical
heritage was also destroyed. Fortunately
he had many pupils from all over Europe
who held his music in such high esteem
that they owned copies which have been
found in many different places. Thanks
to them we can still listen to his music.
The first five pieces
on this disc are from a manuscript preserved
in Bologna, the others are from three
different collections which were published
in 1643, 1655 and 1675. In particular
the last three works come close to the
genre of the oratorio: 'Domine, quis
habitabit', for instance, is a dialogue
between Jesus and two souls. A number
of pieces contain contrasting sections
for soli and tutti.
It isn't very difficult
to understand why Carissimi had such
a huge reputation during his life and
beyond. The text is painstakingly translated
into music, and these works demonstrate
that Carissimi was a master of musical
rhetoric and 'affetti'. These are explained
at length in the programme notes. Unfortunately
this is lost on those who don't understand
Latin as no English translation of the
lyrics is given.
That is not the only
problem. Everyone knows that recordings
as they are released are the result
of a lot of cutting and pasting. But
the listener shouldn't hear that. But
at several occasions the cuts are clearly
audible. The way 'Ardens est cor meum'
(track 9) ends is a striking example
of this unprofessional neglect. There
is also far too little time between
tracks.
The voices are generally
good, although I find the slight tremolo
of Cristina Curti irritating. Francesca
Cassarini, on the other hand, has a
very beautiful voice, which is crystal
clear and blends far better with the
other singers than Curti's. But the
interpretation hasn't really satisfied
me. First of all, most voices - in particular
the tenor and bass - are not strong
enough, and there are some intonation
problems as well. Secondly, the rhetorical
features of these works as described
in the booklet are not fully exploited
in the performance. There is a lack
of dynamic contrast in most pieces and
the 'affetti' are much stronger than
one would guess on the basis of these
interpretations. Furthermore there should
be more variety in the ornamentation.
On the whole there is just too little
real passion and excitement in this
recording.
I do not know of any
other recording of this repertoire so
I must I recommend this disc to those
curious to know what else Carissimi
wrote apart from oratorios. That said,
these pieces deserve a much better recording
than Il Cantar Novo is offering here.
Johan van Veen
Ensemble Il Cantar Novo: Cristina Curti, Francesca
Cassarini (soprano), Cristina Calzolari (contralto),
Giovanni Cantarini (tenor), Alberto Salarelli
(bass), Cecilia Amadori (cello), Elena Dalla Casa
(organ)/Pietro Ceccarelli 
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