Fux: Dafne in lauro

Zefiro and Alfredo Bernardini

Released on 25/06/2021 by Arcana
Main artists: Zefiro Alfredo Bernardini
Genre: Classical

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It often feels these days as though you can't move for hitting the revival of a previously forgotten Baroque composer, and now here's another one. Yet Johann Joseph Fux (1660-1741) is an especially interesting case, because while his large canon of vocal and instrumental music was largely forgotten after his death, his impact on subsequent composers was still immense, courtesy of his Gradus ad Parnassum (“Steps to Parnassus”) of 1725 – a theoretical treatise on counterpoint which remained the standard counterpoint textbook for centuries, with a place on the shelves of J.S. Bach, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, and even yours truly as I studied for my own music degree during the 1990s. However Fux was more than a good music theorist. In fact he was one of the most successful composers of his time, holding the Vienna imperial court's Kapellmeister post for forty years, with Antonio Caldara his deputy. So there were rich pickings for Graz's Styriarte Festival and Alfredo Bernardini's period instrument Ensemble Zefiro when in 2018 they began a collaboration to restage and record six of Fux's 19 operas, as the cycle's first installment, Dafne in lauro, makes plain.

First performed in 1714 in the Vienna court gardens for the birthday of Emperor Charles VI, Dafne in lauro is based on the Greek myth of Apollo and Dafne, in which the hunting and sports-loving nymph Dafne is transformed into a laurel tree by her river god father when she begs to be saved from the amorous pursuit of Apollo, the god of music and poetry. Stylistically, Fux's music is correspondingly pastoral-sounding, with musical hunting allusions thrown in too. Also in the mix are a profusion of French-style dance movements such as minuets, gigues and bourrées. So the result is a score that verily dances along; and all the more so here, thanks to the sprightly zing that Ensemble Zefiro has brought to proceedings, from the twinkle-toed energy of its continuo section, to the infectious rhythmic impetus and timbral glow coming from its melodic instruments.

There's equal gusto from the singers too, and if the vocal delivery occasionally feels a little rough and ready, then that's because this was a live recording taken in Graz's Helmut List Halle – and the gain is exactly that sense of live, physical performance. Highlights? Well, there's the warmly vibrato'd dignity that soprano Arianna Vendittelli brings to Dafne's poignant aria “Lascio d’esser Ninfa, sì”, where an equal star through the aria's skeletal textures is viola da gamba player Lorenz Duftschmid as he soulfully, reactively duets with her, with a few “chalumeaux” discreetly in the background. Or there's Apollo's subsequent “Questa fronda che circonda” - a divinity-inspired aria doubling up as an act of worship to Charles VI himself – where countertenor Raffaele Pe makes easy work of its vocal acrobatics across his glowing, joyous reading; and in fact this is another aria where a good fifty percent of the enjoyment comes from the instrumentalist rising up to duet on an equal footing, this time theorboist Miguel Rincón. It must also be said that some of the most pleasure-filled moments come from the radiantly crisp and buoyant chorus numbers.

In short, a highly promising start to the cycle. © Charlotte Gardner/Qobuz

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In 2018, the Styriarte Festival in Graz launched, in collaboration with Zefiro, a project to rediscover the operatic output of the Styrian composer Johann Joseph Fux (1660-1741), Kapellmeister at the imperial court in Vienna for forty years, with the aim of restaging six of his nineteen operas, one per year. With a cast of Baroque vocal specialists, led by Monica Piccinini and Arianna Venditelli, this set of Dafne in lauro marks the beginning of a new series in which Arcana will release the recordings made in the course of the six-year cycle.

First performed on 1 October 1714 to celebrate the birthday of the Emperor Charles VI, Dafne in lauro is distinguished by the numerous references to hunting in the overture and in Diana’s arias, and by the numerous dance movements typical of the French style, such as minuets, gigues and bourrées. The highlight is Daphne’s poignant aria accompanied by the viola da gamba, which, along with the chalumeau and the transverse flute, enriches the range of tone colours in the score. © 2021 Arcana

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Fux: Dafne in lauro

Zefiro

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