Saturday, December 6, 2014

Jan Dismas Zelenka - Magnificat ZWV 108 Three Performances


Kuhn Mixed Chorus
Prague Chamber Orchestra
Lubomir Matl, conductor
Pavel Kuhn, chorus master

Jana Jonasova, soprano
Marie Mrazova, contralto



Soprano Miah Persson, countertenor Akira Tachikawa, and the Choir and Orchestra of Bach Collegium Japan, led by Masaaki Suzuki

Zelenka's setting of the Magnificat was a real surprise, I'd never heard it before and it's very, very good.  It's so good that J. S. Bach had his son W. F. Bach copy it so he could perform it where he worked.  Zelenka is known to have had J. S. Bach's admiration and one visit by him to Bach is documented.  Zelenka's setting is dated at about 1725 before Bach's in D, estimated to date from about 1728, though the one in Eb may have preceded it.   It would be interesting to know which one may have influenced the other.   Bach's Magnficat setting is, beyond question, the most well known, today, though there are an enormous number of others that should be performed more.

Here's an mp3 of another performance by the Cambridge Concentus at the First Church in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

The Bach Collegium Japan has the best recorded sound but none of the recordings is of really fine quality and you'd probably want a CD of this or any of the other settings I've posted.   That said, Zelenka's is quite a remarkably good setting of the text


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