Search - Giacomo Carissimi, Marc-Antoine Charpentier, Christopher Jackson :: Carissimi, Charpentier: Latin Oratorios - Jonas, Jephte, Le Reniement de saint Pierre

Somewhat disappointing

R. Caltabiano | 04/07/2006

(2 out of 5 stars)

"With so many great recordings of early Baroque music available now, this one seems less interesting in a number of ways.



The size of the chorus seems awkward, too small for a beautiful blending, too large for individual voices to be heard. Further, occasional imprecisions are heard with ending consonants (for an example, listen to the opening phrases of track 18). The often florid solo lines reveal an uneven approach: sometimes so non-legato as suggest an "H" before each running note, and sometimes connected by an uncharacteristic portamento. These variations might be acceptable for specific expressive effects, but I did not observe that this was the case.



Vibrato is not used consistently. It is sometimes used as an ornament and other times seems uncontrolled. Overall, the expression seems anachronistic. Rather extreme changes in dynamics, forte-pianos, and swift crescendos seem to set the interpretation perhaps a hundred years after c. 1650 origin of the works.



These performances would have been acceptable 30 years ago, but they do not exemplify our current understanding of best performance practices for early Baroque music."