Richter: La Deposizione dalla croce 2 CD

This 2-CD set presents Franz Xaver Richters passion oratorio La Deposizione dalla croce di Gesu Cristo Salvator nostro, or The Deposition from the Cross of Jesus Christ, Our Saviour, composed in 1748 to a libretto by Giovanni Claudio Pasquini. The recording features Kateina Knkov as Maddalena, Jaroslav Bezina as Giuseppe dArimatea, Philippe Mathmann as Giovanni, Piotr Olech as Simone and Lenka Cafourkov uricov as Nicodemno, with Czech Ensemble Baroque and conductor Roman Vlek. When Richter became a member of the famous Mannheim orchestra in 1746, he found himself at the centre of the progressive musical developments of eighteenth-century Europe, where a new era was taking shape. He nevertheless retained the traditional Baroque craft, and when he received Pasquinis most successful oratorio libretto, he set it in his unmistakable style, combining Baroque compositional principles, including Fuxian contrapuntal choruses, with the innovations of the emerging Classical period. Richter used a revised 1744 version of the libretto prepared for J. A. Hasse. His only Italian oratorio is a Good Friday meditation by Jesuss disciples on the boundlessness of Gods love and Christs suffering on the cross. It was probably performed for the first and last time on Good Friday 1748 in the Mannheim court church of the Visitation of the Virgin Mary. This recording by Czech Ensemble Baroque is the world premiere of F. X. Richters only Italian oratorio and another contribution to the exploration of his remarkable, largely unknown work.