Cantates

Giovanni Simone Mayr

Released on 2006-12-12 by Naxos
Main artists: Talia Or Altin Piriu Nikolay Borchev Franz Hauk Simon Mayr Chorus Georgische Kammerorchester Ingolstadt
Genre: Choral Music (Choirs)

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Bavarian composer Simon Mayr was centered in the Northern Italian city of Bergamo, which in the early eighteenth century enjoyed a reputation as sort of "little Vienna," reflecting the cultural thrust of what was then the center of the universe as far as the arts in Europe were concerned. Mayr's contribution to Italian opera was critical -- although by the 1820s he represented a relatively conservative viewpoint; he is credited with shepherding the transition from classical-styled opera to Romantic melodrama in Italy. Mayr is also notable as the teacher of composer Gaetano Donizetti, who only outlived his master by three years. The two works featured on Naxos' Simon Mayr: L'Armonia (Dramatic Cantata) are not operas but secular cantatas, a genre to which Mayr contributed more than 60 occasional pieces. Owing to its topicality, Mayr's Cantata for the Death of Beethoven would prove of especial interest to Beethoven enthusiasts, although the novelty is dampened somewhat when one learns that Mayr wrote similar cantatas for Franz Josef Haydn and others.
Although given to occasional moments of excitement through its vibrant orchestral scoring and tricky rhythmic devices, L'Armonia is an antique. Not very seriously "dramatic," L'Armonia is a confection written for the entertainment of Austrian (and former Holy Roman) Emperor Franz I (formerly "Franz II"), who is best known for losing most of his empire to Napoleon and for marrying four times. Written in 1825, the weak libretto has the people, presumably those of Bergamo, rejoicing in their pastoral, agrarian lives until the call to war is sounded. Returning from battle rich with trophies, they repair the temple and lay tribute wreathes to Emperor and Empress, whereupon the heavens respond through filling the temple with a blaze of light. After some final tributes are paid, the work ends some three-quarters of hour after it began. For the Emperor, who had never won a single military campaign, a lot of this must have seemed like wishful thinking.
The Beethoven tribute is filled with passionate verse that exclaims the abject sorrow felt by Music at the Bonn master's departure in the purplest of terms -- "That swan beloved of Euterpe has fallen to a Stygian dart...the waves sing his praises to the sound of dreadful grief." Dreadful indeed, and yet the music is mostly soft and sweet, with a quotation from the "Pastoral" symphony wafting by as the soprano recalls how Beethoven "portrayed the peace and innocence of hills and forest." Ironically, only when something lifted from Beethoven's music drifts in or out of the texture does the music become in the least interesting.
The Ingolstadt Georgian Chamber Orchestra, under Franz Hauk, sounds very good in all of this music -- crisp, tight, and well intoned. The soloists range from quite good (bass Nikolay Borchev) to not good (soprano Talia Or). However, the biggest liability in this performance is the Simon Mayr Choir, founded by Franz Hauk in 2003 but not well coached by him in this music. It sounds like an undisciplined crowd of voices and runs riot through most of the recording; perhaps next time Hauk will consider hiring an assistant to look after the chorus and thereby get a better result. Finding better cantatas among Mayr's extensive output in this area might not be a bad idea either.

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Cantates

Talia Or

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L'Armonia, Scene I

Chorus. Bell'Armonia risvegliati (Fair Harmony awake)