HAYDN Seven Last Words of Christ of the Cross (Minasi)
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: Joseph Haydn
Genre:
Orchestral
Label: Harmonia Mundi
Magazine Review Date: 05/2019
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 63
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: HMM90 2633
Tracks:
Composition | Artist Credit |
---|---|
Seven Last Words |
Joseph Haydn, Composer
Joseph Haydn, Composer Resonanz Ensemble Riccardo Minasi, Conductor |
Author: David Threasher
In fact the original orchestral score comes out far less often than the solo and chamber versions, so this new recording from Ensemble Resonanz is doubly welcome. First, because of the chance it offers to relish this rarity from Haydn’s high maturity as a symphonist. Second, because of the finely nuanced performance it receives. The strings have a particular sparkle as captured within the stonework of a reasonably spacious Hamburg church, while the woodwind offer consoling balm: for example in the second sonata, ‘Today you will be with me in paradise’, or singing descants over the ‘dry’ strings in the fifth, ‘I thirst’. The final ‘Il terremoto’ (‘Earthquake’) – marked Presto, con tutta la forza – at last releases the tension, like a summer storm, trumpets and timpani heard for the first time in the work.
Jordi Savall recorded the Words on period instruments in the very church in Cádiz for which it was written but Minasi’s reading scores for its greater tightness of ensemble and a richer sound, stemming from a slightly larger string section. Savall also includes brief Gospel readings (in Latin) between each sonata, a feature absent from the new recording. Reviewing the previous disc, Richard Wigmore remarked that the Seven Last Words should be in the collection of every Haydn lover. What better opportunity than this?
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