Vivica Genaux – Hommage à Vivaldi (2018) [Official Digital Download 24bit/44,1kHz]

The virtuosic performance of Vienna Bach Consort conducted by its genius maestro Ruben Dubrovsky at Vienna’s St. Stephan’s Cathedral will carry its audience along to original sound impressions of Vivaldi’s time. The magnificent setting of St. Stephan’s Cathedral and the artistic peak of orchestra and conductor will be enhanced by the appearance of the adorable Vivica Genaux. The US-mezzosoprano is famous for her extraordinary interpretation of baroque repertoire. This concert captivates with its exceptional relation of sacral music and acoustic impressions. Vienna Bach Consort featuring mezzo-soprano Vivica Genaux, conducted by Ruben Dubrovsky: an exceptional music experience!

The great American mezzo-soprano Vivica Genaux returns here in an album given over to Vivaldi’s religious works, a repertoire in which she excels superbly. There are in fact no fewer than 28 roles in the baroque realm which she performs with a joyful virtuosity, which never borders on the hysteria we see in some of her peers’ performances.

Recorded at Vienna’s Stephansdom in 2015, with the excellent Bach Consort Wien conducted by its Argentine founder Rubén Dubrovsky, this Hommage à Vivaldi offers up religious works of great expressive power, alternating between pieces as different as the motets In turbato mare irato and Sum in medio tempestatum, and the ambitious setting-to-music of the famous psalm Nisi Dominus. Here, we discover an inspired Vivaldi in his lesser-known works, such as the poignant Kyrie in G Minor with his daring chromatisms or the Credo in E Minor and its finely-sculpted instrumentation.

With a supple, warm voice, Vivica Genaux tackles melismas in Vivaldi’s phrases with an unsettling ease, and brings a consummate art to ornamentations and “coloraturas which seem to be born from the wind”, in the delightful phrase of a music critic in the German weekly Die Zeit. The Bach Consort Wien accompanies these holy works with the contagious joy that reigned in the happy-go-lucky Vienna of the 18th century, when operatic theatres were as numerous as churches. – François Hudry

Tracklist:
1-1. Vivica Genaux – I. In turbato mare irato (06:23)
1-2. Vivica Genaux – II. Splende serena (00:48)
1-3. Vivica Genaux – III. Resplende bella divina stella (06:26)
1-4. Vivica Genaux – IV. Alleluia (02:17)
1-5. Vivica Genaux – I. Adagio (04:28)
1-6. Vivica Genaux – II. Allegro (02:35)
1-7. Vivica Genaux – III. Allegro (02:23)
1-8. Vivica Genaux – I. Nisi Dominus (Allegro) (02:28)
1-9. Vivica Genaux – II. Vanum est vobis (Largo) (01:10)
1-10. Vivica Genaux – III. Surgite (Presto) (01:35)
1-11. Vivica Genaux – IV. Cum dederit (Andante) (04:49)
1-12. Vivica Genaux – V. Sicut sagittae (Allegro) (01:25)
1-13. Vivica Genaux – VI. Beatus vir (Andante) (01:11)
1-14. Vivica Genaux – VII. Gloria Patri (Larghetto) (04:22)
1-15. Vivica Genaux – VIII. Sicut erat in principio (Allegro) (01:00)
1-16. Vivica Genaux – IX. Amen (Allegro) (01:42)
1-17. Vivica Genaux – I. Credo in unum Deum (02:15)
1-18. Vivica Genaux – II. Et incarnatus est (01:23)
1-19. Vivica Genaux – III. Crucifixus (02:33)
1-20. Vivica Genaux – IV. Et resurrexit (03:03)
1-21. Vivica Genaux – I. Sum in medio tempestatum (06:56)
1-22. Vivica Genaux – II. Quid ergo faciam, infelix anima (00:57)
1-23. Vivica Genaux – III. Semper maesta, sconsolata (06:50)
1-24. Vivica Genaux – IV. Alleluia (03:01)