10/1996

Intune Magazine

Giovanni Maria Legrenzi is no longer the household name it was during the 17th and 18th Centuries. Lengrenzi's shameful neglect by the record industry has been hard to fathom, but this new Divox release of his chamber oratorio «The death of the Repentant Heart» could well launch the much-needed revival for the Venetian master - a composer who took over where Gabrieli and Monteverdi left off. Legrenzi, better known for his operas than his religious works durîng his lifetime (1626-1690), was widely admired (and copied) all over Europe. His sense of drama, charming melody and character painting were superb, and he advanced the use of instrumental support. Virtually all composers studied his scores. (Bach wrote a «Fugue on a Theme of Legrenzi, his BWV 574.) But in our time, only the occasional aria appears on recital programs. (It will take searching, but singers as distinguished as Ezio Pinza an Luciano Pavarotti each recorded Legrenzi excerpts.) As far as I can research, this is the premiere recording of any major Legrenzi vocal composition... one of the three surviving oratorios by the choir master of Saint Mark's Cathedral. «La morte de cor penitente», however, is so intimate taht scholars have always thought it was written for the smaller Santa Maria della Consolazione church. (Legrenzi worked there during his final 20 years.) The text is an allegory dealing with the inner working of God's potential for forgiveness of those who sincerely regret their errors. Tenor Mario Cecchetti sings the principal role of the Sinner, with sopranos Roberta Invernizzi as Penitence and Elisabetta de Mircovich as Hope. Those two sopranos are joined by three other singers for the five-part Chorus of Retribution. They're accompanied by the rather spectacular Baroque-specialist ensemble, Sonatori de la Gioiosa Marca. (You may recall their sensational Divox release of Vivaldi's Four Seasons last season, which set a new standard of excellence for this much-recorded work.) Divox provides luscious audiophile sonics and a serious booklet: notes in Italian, German, English and French; full libretto in Italian, German and English. Essential.