music for Maundy Thursday – “Eia Mater” from Antonio Vivaldi’s “Stabat Mater” RV 621

For all the stunning church music Antonio Vivaldi composed, he has never gotten to writing a proper passion oratorio. Fortunately, he did compose a Stabat Mater in 1721, the seventh movement of which we can now listen to. Performed by Philippe Jaroussky, because after 8 years of studying the long gone aesthetics of past societies, I only enjoy my soprano arias if sung by males.

music for Maundy Thursday – Johann Friedrich Fasch: “Mich vom Stricke meiner Sünden” (Passio Jesu Christi, FWV F:1)

For Maundy Thursday (is there any part of the world where it is still Thursday?) let’s have another version of the Brockes-Passion, composed by another Bach-contemporary and former Sängerknabe of the famous Thomasschule of Leipzig, Johann Friedrich Fasch. Although they have not met at Leipzig (having been at the same age, Fasch just finished his study years ten years before Bach arrived to begin his teaching career at a position that was originally intended for Fasch); their sons, Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach and Karl Friedrich Christian Fasch were friends and even roommates when both employed at the Potsdam court of Friedrich the Great. Their job was to play continuo for the king, a flute player and amateur composer himself, whose teacher was Johann Joachim Quantz, the author of the the bible of all traverso players of all times (myself included), Versuch einer Anweisung die Flöte traversiere zu spielen, which is an endless source of information on the performance practice of the first half of the 18th century. 

Back to Papa Fasch – although he composed numerous cantatas and some other vocal works, this is his only oratorio. The opening movement is a nice choral in a polyphonic setting, the violins doubled with oboes, which is a great plus in my eyes. The voice of the Baroque oboe is one of the (very few) things that make life bearable.  

Two years ago I posted Pater dimitte illis from the oratorio Agonia di Cristo (Le Ultime Sette Parole) by Niccolò Jommelli with some stunning obligato bassoon part. Last year’s music for Maundy Thursday was Jesus in Gethsemane by Francesco Antonio Rosetti, which unfortunately seems to have disappeared off the face of the Earth YouTube since then. That’s what happens to good music in our days. I am so sad.   

music for Maundy Thursday – Francesco Antonio Rosetti: Jesus in Gethsemane

Today’s music is the oratorio Jesus in Gethsemane by Francesco Antonio Rosetti, also called Franz Anton Rösler, a Classical era composer of Bohemian origin who was found worth of mentioning beside names as Mozart and Haydn by Charles Burney, the famous English travelling music historian of the late 18th century. Rosetti’s life bears a slight resemblance with that of Mozart: they both were successful (yes, Mozart was successful during his lifetime, everything else you hear is nothing but urban legend), didn’t have the less feeling for money and died young.

I intended to post his other oratorio, Der sterbende Jesus, which was a big hit in Rosetti’s days, but, well, it seems that YouTube is not the place where one goes for historical performance practice research. I should better look for videos with titles like “Adorable 6 Year Old playing Jingle Bells on the recorder while belly dancing in a living room in Oklahoma city” if I need some sense of achievement.

P.S.: You can listen to last year’s Maundy Thursday post, Agonia di Cristo (Le Ultime Sette Parole) from Niccolò Jommelli, here.

P.S.2.: Just a reminder: whether Jommelli’s nor Rosetti’s music fits my own category of high Baroque. Maundy Thursday makes me crave Classical harmonies.

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Today’s music is the first movement of the oratorio Agonia di Cristo (Le Ultime Sette Parole), based on the seven last words of Christ, written by Niccolò Jommelli, one of the most prominent composers of the Italian galant opera. Its style is a bit too late for fitting in the category of baroque passion music, but oh, do I love the obligato bassoon part!

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Well, I guess, today’s music sort of fails to match my own criteria, because no one would dare to call the French composer François Couperin, court organist, composer and harpsichord teacher of the Sun King, Louis XIV of France, a musician of small importance. He wrote a number of virtuoso and charming harpsichord pieces and some other amazing instrumental and vocal music, and his harpsichord tutorial, L’art de toucher le clavecin, published in 1716,  is really worth reading. This very piece of his, Troisième Leçon de Ténèbres pour deux voix, originally written for the Wednesday evening liturgy before Maundy Thursday, was even featured in the movie Tous les matins du monde, with Gérard Depardieu starring in the role of the old Marin Marais. Composing Leçons de ténèbres (Lectures of the Darkness) upon the text of the Lamentations of Jeremiah for the late night services of the three holy days before Easter was a huge trend in the late 17th – mid 18th century French music, and it resulted some really moving compositions. This version of Couperin is one of the most beautiful pieces of baroque vocal music I know (and well, I do know a bit about baroque music, hm).