Musica Claromontana Vol.14 -Tenebrae in the Liturgical & Musical Tradition of Jasna Gora: J.Riepel, M.Zygmuntowski, Haydn, etc (3/2006) / Marek Toporowski(cond), Concerto Polacco, etc

This disc is part of a series that for the most part gives world-premiere recordings of music unearthed at Poland's Jasna Gora monastery -- a collection spanning several centuries and very much representing an attempt to keep Poland's musical heritage alive during times of foreign domination. Accordingly, the collection has something of a pioneer spirit -- you don't know quite what you're going to encounter next. It's a bit hard for non-Polophones to tell from the all-Polish track list (and the punishingly small print in the booklet doesn't help), but the program here presents music for Holy Week services compiled from plainchant and music by various composers of, perhaps, the 1770s. Unlike with most of the other discs in the series, most of the music, for one or more soloists and small orchestra without chorus, here isn't actually Polish. A good deal of it, in fact, is by Haydn (the Stabat mater of 1767), arranged and retexted by one O. Michal Zygmuntowski. This project doesn't come off especially elegantly, but the rest of the music, some of it by another Austrian named Joseph Riepel and some by Franciszek Perneckher, manages a pretty good approximation of the toned-down Italian opera style Haydn and plenty of other Austrian composers, including his brother, used for sacred music around this time. Thanks to fine, lively historical-instrument performances by the 11-member Concerto Polacco, the disc is listenable even if the music doesn't quite make a case for having been rescued from the mists of history.