A THREE-CENTURY WAIT FOR A VIVALDI JEWEL
                        A Discovery through Astute Detective Work
                                              By D. Rane Danubian
        artssf.com, the independent observer of San Francisco Bay Area music and dance 
                                                                 Week of May 31-June 6,  2011
                                                                  Vol. 13, No. 104
            BERKELEY---A recent discovery of a long-lost Vivaldi choral work is rarity enough. But to find a highly dramatic Vivaldi sacred work, brand “new,” is like a gold nugget that was overlooked by everybody for close to 270 years.
            Antonio Vivaldi was the prolific “red priest” baroque composer of Venice whom we know mostly for his “Four Seasons” set of violin concertos. But in toto he penned close to 1,000 pieces---some 46 operas, various church opuses, and more than 500 concertos mostly for strings. After all the musicological research of the past century, could yet more gems be tucked away somewhere?
            Yes, indeed. Just seven years ago a work of his long misattributed to Galuppi, a far lesser figure, was positively identified and exhumed in Germany. And this Vivaldi “Dresden Dixit Dominus” R.V. 807 as it is known, was performed here May 28 at the First Congregational Church by Chora Nova, assisted by close to a dozen baroque instrumentalists.
            It was well worth the three-century wait. This is a highly dramatic 27-minute church opus, bordering on operatic dimensions of exuberance, requiring two sopranos, a tenor and countertenor (or castrato) as soloists. They get a good deal of florid or coloratura singing---usually a no-no deemed too distracting in church at high mass-----and even the chorus gets its share of tropes (runs) that can turn as muddy as the Mississippi in flood stage unless singers are very cautious.
            The tenor’s aria “Dominus a dextris tuis” in fact is virtually identical to a known Vivaldi aria in a secular opera, “The Faithful Nymph,” a similarity that led to the musicological detectives’ unmasking of this pseudo-Galuppi gem. 
            The sprightly opening brings to mind music of Handel (whose own “Dixit Dominus”   from his Italian days is well-known), at least until the abrupt dramatic turn for chorus in the “enemies as footstool” imagery. There is a vocal duet (which itself would be unusual in Handel) for soprano and tenor, sounding like some jaunty horseback ride on a sunny Sunday afternoon. There are dark colors in the “He Shall Judge” section portraying the anger of God, where a natural trumpet sounds the knell. And, of course, there's a  near-mandatory, tongue-twisting final “Amen” fugue.
            In short, this Psalm 110 in Latin, “The Lord Said,” is an excellent addition to the repertory, further fortifying the reputation of this Venetian baroque composer who had lain forgotten and neglected for two centuries.
            The neatly dove-tailed solo soprano voices were from Michele Byrd and Jennifer Paulino, who were also responsible for three exquisite duets in Galuppi’s “Nisi Dominus” on the same program. The concert had opened with Pergolesi’s “Confitebor tibi” (1732), which appeared to anticipate  Mozart’s earlier sacred works of nearly a half-century later.
            The Berkeley-based Chora Nova is a proficient if not professional 50-voice mixed chorus, effectively led by Paul Flight into the completion of its fifth year. It had originated from the East Bay portion of the Baroque Choral Guild, which had split in two, moved across the bay, and changed its name as well.
            Chora Nova is absolutely unique among our many choruses. When have you ever seen the conductor (Flight) turn around in mid-concert and sing a countertenor’s solo aria “De torrente?" 
            VIVALDI AND THE DETECTIVES---In the mid-18th century, Baldassare Galuppi’s music was so popular in Dresden, Germany, that an order was put in to ship 60 of his sacred works, in score. As the Venetian copyists did not have that many on hand, several of Vivaldi’s sacred works were shipped along, passed off as Galuppi’s. No one was the wiser, till the musicologists started studying the pieces in our millennium and unmasked the true composer, whose other copies of this opus are either lost---or perhaps gathering dust incognito in yet another library….This was no premiere; the “Dresden Dixit Dominus” had previously been performed across the bay.
            Chora Nova, Paul Flight Artistic Director, May 28 season finale at the First Congregational Church, Berkeley. For info: go online. 

        ©D. Rane Danubian 2011
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        D. Rane Danubian has been covering the dance and modern-music scene in the San Francisco Bay Area with relish -- and a certain amount of salsa -- for years.
    These critiques appearing weekly (or sometimes semi-weekly, but never weakly) will focus on dance and new musical creativity in performance, with forays into books (by authors of the region), theater and recordings by local artists as well.
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