The fact that Jan Dismas Zelenka (1679-1745), born in Bohemia, worked as court chapel master in Dresden for the last 30 years of his life, can be traced back to the conversion of this court to the Roman Catholic faith in 1697 for political reasons. This transition made it necessary to compose an entirely new corpus of church music, and Zelenka was the right candidate: he was from the neighborhood,
… was himself a Catholic, trained by his predecessor in Dresden and by Johann Joseph Fux, then the foremost composer of Catholic church music and he was aware of the latest developments in Italian music, so that the court was assured of music in the latest fashion. Zelenka was highly regarded by his colleagues in Germany, including Johann Sebastian Bach, whom he knew personally. This CD offers an anthology of the works that Zelenka wrote for the Dresden court. You can listen to "Psalm 109 'Dixit Dominus', ZWV.68", "Litaniae Lauretanae, ZWV.151" and the "Magnificat ZWV.108". The only Catholic thing about this music is the lyrics; musically Zelenka made use of all the well-known stylistic devices from the German Baroque that we also find in Telemann and Bach. This selection is very well performed by soloists, the Capella Piccola and the Barockorchester Metamorphosis under conductor Thomas Reuber. (JvG) _ The only Catholic thing about this music is the lyrics; musically Zelenka made use of all the well-known stylistic devices from the German Baroque that we also find in Telemann and Bach. This selection is performed quite well by soloists, the Capella Piccola and the Barockorchester Metamorphosis under conductor Thomas Reuber. (JvG) _ The only Catholic thing about this music is the lyrics; musically Zelenka made use of all the well-known stylistic devices from the German Baroque that we also find in Telemann and Bach. This selection is very well performed by soloists, the Capella Piccola and the Barockorchester Metamorphosis under conductor Thomas Reuber. (JvG) _more
