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BBC Music Magazine (07/2010)
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AVDVD 9868

 

Appréciation d'ensemble / Overall evaluation :

Reviewer: George Hall

 

Already issued on CD, this live 2006 performance of Haydn’s spiritual masterplece is given in its original orchestral form in the location for which lit was intended - the chapel of Santa Cueva in Cádiz - in an account that revives many of the circumstances of the first performance.

 

The venues walls have even been at least partially draped with black cloth, as they apparently were for the Good Friday ceremony back in 1787 - though for some reason authentic candlelight has been judged too visually warm, and a meagre, cold luminosity has been arranged by the modern lighting engineers. As well as the fllming of the performance itself, the visuals cut away to show us elements of the distinctive penitential services, with their image-carrying processions and ornate, and slightly sinister costumes.

 

In addition, one can cue in the reading of each 'word' - the short Biblical texts representing Jesus's final statements from the cross which inspired the work to begin with as well as substantial commentaries on the texts by Raimon Pannikar, a specialist in inter-religious dialogue, and by the Nobel prize-winning Portuguese writer, ]osé Saramago.

 

Played on period instruments, the performance itself is expertly motivated by Jordi Savall, achieving a fine blend of solemnity and austerity with intimacy of feeling. The acoustic takes some of the edge off the tone, but this is the ultimate in authentic performance.

  

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