Francesco Durante was a leading light among a gifted generation of Neapolitan composers that included Leonardo Leo, Nicola Porpora and Leonardo Vinci. Unlike these, however, Durante never turned his skill towards opera, preferring sacred musical forms, cantatas and chamber vocal duets for which he was much praised by Burney and others. Eight concerti grossi and a harpsichord concerto further testify to Durante’s imaginative compositional flair.
The Lamentations of the Prophet Jeremiah, three in all, were probably composed in 1751, towards the end of Durante’s life. They are a far cry from the earlier Italian lamentazioni, more closely resembling in their richly scored, vocally virtuosic arias sections of oratorio. These concertante pieces are striking above all for their stylistic variety. Harmonies are bold, sometimes daring and often wonderfully expressive, as in the opening section of the Third Lamentation or in the opening “De Lamentatione” of the First. Here the music is full of pathos, imaginatively scored and sympathetically inclined towards the voice. Each Lamentation has its own distinctive colouring, the First for soprano with pairs of flutes and horns with strings, the Second for soprano, alto and strings, and the Third for soprano, alto, tenor and bass soloists with four-part choir, two horns and strings. This last Lamentation is particularly impressive for the way in which Durante intersperses and blends older contrapuntal disciplines with up-to-the-minute galant gestures resonantly proclaimed by the intermittent presence of the two concertante horns. When confronted with pieces such as this, it is not difficult to understand the praise lavished upon Durante by contemporaries such as Rousseau, who described him as “the greatest harmonist in Italy that is, in the whole world”. Well he would, I suppose, having been roundly snubbed by Rameau several years earlier.
The performances are rather good, with an excellent period-instrument band, a responsive though not always incisive choir and mostly stylish soloists. Soprano Monika Frimmer does not always sound comfortable in the execution of ornaments but the vocal quality is pleasing and her intonation reliable. In the First Lamentation she shares the work with soprano Mechthild Bach who in turn shares the Second Lamentation with contralto Margarete Joswig. Director Peter Neumann infuses the music with fervour, attending to the many nuances that exist in Durante’s setting of the texts. An unusual and stimulating release, well recorded and painstakingly documented.'