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Antonio ROSETTI (1750 - 1792): Der sterbende Jesus
Anna-Lena Elbert (Maria), soprano;
Anne Bierwirth (Joseph von Arimathia), contralto;
Georg Poplutz (Johannes), tenor;
Daniel Ochoa (Jesus), bass
Vokalensemble BeckerPsalter; L'arpa festante
Dir: Johannes Moesus
rec: June 17 - 19, 2022, Nördlingen, Pfarrkirche St. Salvator
CPO - 555 567-2 (© 2024) (55'28")
Liner-notes: E/D; lyrics - translations: E
Cover, track-list & booklet
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[VBP] Inga Conzen, Sophia Jüngling, Elisabeth Reitzer, Julia Schweinstetter, Julia Sturm, soprano;
Eliane Abe, Julia Bencker, Viola Guggemos, Anna Kapfer, contralto;
Felix Heiske, Johannes Milosic, Jakob Schweizer, Christoph Teichner, tenor;
Florian Schmid, Robert Sturm, Jan Wenzel, bass
[LF] Monika Kleinle, transverse flute;
Peter Tabori, Anke Nevermann, oboe;
Uschi Bruckdorfer, bassoon;
Raphael Vosseler, Christiane Vosseler, horn;
Xavier Gendreau, Hagen Rauscher, trumpet;
Christoph Hesse, Angelika Balzer, Christine Rox, Renate Harr, Georgia Höpfner, Franka Palowski, Regine Killian, Anne Erdmann, violin;
Franz Rauch, Ursula Plagge-Zimmermann, Christiane Sauer-Lieb, viola;
Anja Enderle, Helga Löhrer, cello;
Haralt Martens, violone;
Christoph Anselm Noll, organ;
Martin Homann, timpani
In his History of Music, the English music historian Charles Burney mentions Antonio Rosetti in the same breath as Mozart and Haydn. How far we are still away from giving the composer the place he deserves. Only now and then his music appears in programmes of live performances and on disc. If any music of his pen is performed, it is mostly instrumental music. That makes the release of a recording of his Passion oratorio Der sterbende Jesus all the more important.
For most of his life Rosetti was in the service of Count Kraft Ernst of Oettingen-Wallerstein, near Augsburg. He was one of the many musicians/composers from Bohemia who made a career in various countries in Europe. Rosetti's employer was a fanatical lover of music and spent much money on his chapel which brought his principality at the brink of bankruptcy. Rosetti started as a player of the double bass and then gradually improved his standing until he reached the status of concert master. Kraft Ernst married in 1774, but only two years later his wife, princess Marie Thérèse of Thurn und Taxis, died while giving birth to a daughter. Kraft Ernst was devastated and fell into a state of melancholy which lasted four years. All those years no music was performed and the orchestra was disbanded. Rosetti stayed at the court and when things turned for the better he became involved in the revival of the orchestra. In 1780 he received permission to travel to Paris, which greatly enhanced his status as one of the leading composers in Europe.
During his time at the court of Oettingen-Wallerstein Rosetti did not compose much vocal music. His employer was very interested in opera, but could not afford opera performances. Rosetti focused on instrumental music, such as symphonies and solo concertos for various instruments, whereas in the field of sacred music he mainly wrote small-scale works. The court orchestra only participated in performances of sacred music on the main feast days.
Der sterbende Jesus is Rosetti's first oratorio, and the only one he composed for Oettingen-Wallerstein. In Germany - and in particular in the Lutheran part of it - the Passion was an important musical genre. Until the first decades of the 18th century most Passions were so-called oratorio Passions. The core of these oratorios, which were meant to be performed in a liturgical setting, was the text of the gospels. The objective was to make the congregation to 're-experience' the Passion of Jesus Christ, as it were, and to take part in the unfolding of the events as reported in the gospels. They were composed in the spirit of Luther's theology of the cross, which emphasized that the Passion of Jesus for the sins of mankind was an absolute precondition to receive the grace of God. In the 18th century this kind of Passion was gradually replaced by the Passion oratorio with a lyrical and more meditative character. Not the story itself but the emotional reaction to it was the tenor of this kind of Passion, and the composer wanted the audience to feel sympathy with the suffering Jesus. This kind of oratorio was not liturgical and was mostly performed during a public concert. The arias were often of a rather operatic nature and sometimes very virtuosic.
Der sterbende Jesus was first performed on Good Friday 1785 at the Wallerstein parish church. Whether it was part of a church service, or performed in the form of a concert is not clear. The libretto was written by Karl Friedrich Bernhard Zinkernagel, a government official with literary ambitions, who later became the court archivist. It is notable that both Rosetti and his employer were Catholic, whereas the librettist was Protestant. Günther Grünsteudel, in his liner-notes, observes that in the late 18th century oratorios had become confessionally neutral. Obviously biblical quotations were no problem, dogmatic expressions were avoided, and chorales took a minor place. This oratorio includes only two, and the melodies may be of Rosetti's own making, which avoids any connection to Protestantism.
The scoring is for four voices, a four-part choir and an orchestra of strings, transverse flute, pairs of oboes and horns, bassoon, two trumpets, timpani and basso continuo. As was common in Passion oratorios, there are several characters, here Mary, the mother of Jesus (soprano), Joseph of Arimathia (alto), John, one of Jesus' disciples (tenor), and Jesus (bass). However, they are speaking mostly in the recitatives; with one exception, the arias are allocated to a voice type, without specifically mentioning the respective character.
Although the oratorio is not formally divided into three parts, it consists of three episodes. The first (Nos. 1-8) focuses on the events on Golgatha, as seen and partly described by John. It opens with a chorus: "Jesus, holy and noble, comes to bleed on Golgotha!" The text includes a reference to Revelation, the last book of the Bible: "The lamb will be slain for sinners". Next John gives an account of what happens at Golgatha, twice interrupted by the crowds: "Crucify him!" / "His blood is on us and our children." John then sings an aria, which is the only one allocated to one of the characters. This is followed by a recitative of Mary, expressing her sorrow for seeing her son's hanging at the Cross. Jesus answers by connecting his mother and John. The choir then thanks Jesus for his care, "even in death". Next John describes the earthquake, and Jesus speaks his last words from the Cross. In a chorale and chorus he is given thanks for finishing his task. The text quotes Matthew 27: "The curtain in the temple was torn from top to bottom".
The second section (Nos. 9-14) is about Mary's grief about her son's death. It opens with a recitative and arioso by Mary: "Where? Where do I flee to? There the rock trembles, here bellows the abyss beneath me; and death wallows over me, down from fiery streams. Weep ye heaven, weep in my pain!" The soprano sings an aria: "When once tired of tears, this eye closes, oh, then let your death on the cross be
my confidence". It is not allocated to Mary, and the text is comparable to what in other oratorios of this kind is sung by, for instance, the 'daughter of Zion', with whom the audience can identify. After a recitative of Mary and the tenor (the latter not connected to John), the soprano sings another aria: "Woe to me poor one! What I feel, what I suffer, is known only to you!" John reacts, suggesting that it was Mary who was speaking: "He now has peace, which the world did not give him. He loved you, as you, mother, love him." As chorus closes this section; the text refers again to Revelation: "Blessed from now on are all who will die in the Lord. They will rest from their labour, for their works follow them."
The last section (Nos. 15-23) brings us to the place where Jesus is buried. It opens with a recitative, in which the tenor reflects on the death of Jesus. A chorus, following attacca and accompanied by the orchestra with trumpets and timpani, points in the direction of the resurrection: "But the victor is already near on the wing of the dawn! Rejoice! Rejoice to the Lord of Glory!" It turns into a fugue: "Jesus Christ goes ahead, He clears the high path through the darkness of the grave, upwards to eternity." It is followed by a recitative and aria of Joseph of Arimathia, grieving about Jesus' death. A recitative of soprano and tenor is followed by the second chorale: "Between hope, fear, and trembling, this short life wavered through uncertain joys." The alto then urges to "stem the flow of tears", referring to the resurrection. Next is the only duet of the oratorio, of alto and tenor, which thanks Jesus for his death, which brings "consolation at the grave, peace in life". A short recitative of the tenor leads to the final chorus: "Rejoice! The pious one stands confident in God in Zion, nothing shakes Zion's pillars."
A few aspects of this work need to be mentioned. The choruses are all homophonic, except the fugal section of the fugue in the last section. The arias all have a dacapo structure, but most of them omit a B section: the entire aria is repeated. They are not very technically demanding, with the exception of the one for tenor. Unlike other oratorios of this kind, it is not very close to opera. Notable is the use of keys, which follows a specific plan: the oratorio opens in C minor, and closes in C major, reflecting a development from darkness to light.
The oratorio, which was printed by Artaria in Vienna in 1786, found a wide reception in the next decades. The booklet mentions an impressive number of performances across Germany between 1786 and 1819. Notable is that Mozart owned a copy of this work. It seems not to have been recorded until Moesus did so in 2022, released by CPO. I know of one live performance from 2013 under the direction of Paul Dombrecht. The quality of this work makes it hard to understand that it is little-known, and never has been recorded before.
That quality comes perfectly off here. The team of soloists is impressive. Georg Poplutz is a seasoned performer of especially German sacred music, and his wide experience in the role of Evangelist in oratorios guarantees a spot-on interpretation of the recitatives. He is equally impressive in his aria. Anna-Lena Elbert is a relatively new name, at least in early music, and she gives a very fine account of her capabilities. Her diction is perfect, and her treatment of the text is exactly as it should be. I hope to hear her more often in future recordings. It is useful to mention that in the performance of 1785 the soprano part was sung by a woman, and so was the alto part. Therefore the performance by Anne Bierwirth is historically correct, and as always entirely convincing; she also has a very pleasant voice. Daniel Ochoa, in the role of Jesus, has a small part, only a few recitatives, but his voice has the right weight for it. The choir is powerful, when it needs to be, and produces a transparent sound. The orchestra is alert and fully explores the instrumental effects Rosetti uses to illustrate the text. Johannes Moeses deserves praise for his many efforts to bring to light music from the period between the baroque era and the classical period, which is still underexposed.
To sum up: this is a top-class performance of a work that deserves to be widely-known and regularly performed. Given the small number of Passion compositions from the classical period that are part of the standard repertoire, this is a meaningful and very welcome addition.
Johan van Veen (© 2025)
Relevant links:
Daniel Ochoa
Georg Poplutz