Caldara/ Schiavo/ Stavanger Sym Orch/ Biondi - Morte E Sepoltura Di Christo

With Antonio Caldara's Morte e sepoltura di Christo,released on Glossa just after a new album devotedto Vivaldi's late violin concertos, Fabio Biondireturns to the Italian oratorio, another of hisspecialities. The Venetians Caldara and Vivaldi mayhave been contemporaries but their career pathsled them in different directions, and Caldara wasto spend much time working in Mantua and Romebefore securing the position of vice-Kapellmeisterfor the Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI in Vienna.For the last twenty years of his life Caldara producedcopious quantities of oratorios (and operas), addinga rich sense of counterpoint and making use ofthe broad orchestral colouring offered by the variedinstruments available to him at the Imperial court.Composed for the Lenten season in 1724, Mortee sepoltura follows the typical two-part scheme ofthe time, to a text comprising a series of reflectionsas from personages involved in some way in theevents of the Passion of Christ. Notable is theprofusion of solo arias with obliggato instrumentalparts.Fabio Biondi's recording, with a team of soloists ledby Maria Grazia Schiavo and Silvia Frigato, alsoincludes other echoes of Caldara's Italian past - apair of motets and instrumental music (a VivaldiSonata also makes an appearance) -, and he directsthe Stavanger Symphony Orchestra, with which hehas worked so successfully in the Norwegianorchestra's early music programme since 2006. Thealbum also contains an exemplary essay by theleading Caldara scholar Brian W Pritchard.