Description
La strage degl’Innocenti by Antonio Bertali’s (his only surviving Oratorio.)
Whilst Bertali tends to write conservatively in his liturgical works, he shows himself as more progressive in his oratorio. He creates extended coherent musical units by using musical cross-references and repeats (e.g. tracks 21–24 and 27); some passages are rhetorically daring such as the short trio (track 29) in which the three mothers’ anger is illustrated through noticeable contrapuntal errors. Frequent use of chromaticism and diminished intervals serve as means of text expression, such as the threefold begging gesture “senti, senti, Signore” on a falling tritone which punctuates the recitative of the third counsellor (track 20). Bertali’s mastery becomes fully apparent in the remarkable final chorus in which imitative madrigal style is finely balanced by homophonic writing, and chromatic density by harmonic commonplaces.
Performers:
Reut Rivka, Elena Krasaki, Camille Hesketh, sopranos
Kaspar Kröner, countertenor
Satoshi Mizukoshi, tenor
Yusuke Watanabe, bass
Tassilo Erhardt, Ben Sansom, violins
Sally Holman, bass dulcian
Steven Devine, single manual, single-strung harpsichord, two-stop chamber organ, regal
