われはよみがえりぬ!～モーツァルトとハイドン兄弟のウィーンの復活祭

オックスフォードを代表する混成合唱団のひとつ、オックスフォード・キーブル・カレッジ合唱団によるモーツァルトやハイドン兄弟の楽曲と聖歌集。
彼らはヨーロッパ各地でコンサートを開くほか、ラジオなどにも定期的に出演しています。このアルバムでは現代イタリアの神聖な様式によるラテン語で発音された美しい歌唱が、音楽をより生き生きとした躍動感あるものにしています。モーツァルトの楽曲では特に際立ってその効果が出ています。伴奏は2014年に設立された古楽オーケストラ"インストゥルメンタル・オヴ・タイム&トゥルース"(OAE、エンシェント室内管、イングリッシュ・バロック・ソロイスツ等のメンバーが参加)です。

※当タイトルは、高品質メディア(SONY DADC/Diamond Silver Discs)を使用した、レーベル・オフィシャルのCD-R盤となります。
東京エムプラス

The Choir of Keble College, Oxford, is smaller than some of its English collegiate counterparts, and that, combined with the similarly modest forces of the orchestra Instruments of Time and Truth, works well in these works by Mozart, Michael Haydn, and Joseph Haydn. One might object that this is not quite an "Easter in Vienna" program; the music was mostly written for Salzburg, and that of Joseph Haydn, for Eszterhaza. Of course, the music certainly could have been performed elsewhere. The centerpiece is a mass by Mozart, the Missa Brevis in C major, K. 258 ("Piccolomini"), presented in the fashion of an Easter service with chants and motets interspersed among the movements. The program concludes with an early, ambitious Joseph Haydn choral work, the Te Deum in C major, Hob. 23c:1. These are all sunny works in the galant style, easy on the ears, but annotator Joseph Fort suggests that one purpose of the program is to show the variety within this style, and here, director Paul Brough succeeds. The Mozart mass is remarkable; Mozart acceded to the demands of the notorious archbishop Hieronymous Colloredo that the whole thing, mass, motets, and all, be over quickly, and the mass is barely 15 minutes long, yet at the juncture of the Crucifixion it has considerable thorniness. The pieces by Michael Haydn are lighter but testify to the construction skill of this underrated Classical-era composer. All of the music fits beautifully with the voices of the Choir of Keble College, who sound terrific in their acoustically superior chapel. All of the singers are young; the soloists are members of the choir, and there are moments when one might wish soloists had been brought in from London, as with the orchestra, though that might have disturbed the consistency of tone in what is a thoroughly enjoyable release.