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Contents:
DDD 1h 33m 36 sec Recorded: Asam Kirche Maria de Victoria Ingolstadt, 9–12 September 2004 The action of the oratorio describes an episode in the Old Testament relating to the prophetess Debbora and the struggle of the Israelites against the Canaanites. It is told in the Book of Judges chapter 4, verse 4 to 24. In the centre of events is Sisara, the army commander of the King of Canaan, who ruled the Israelites. The prophetess Debbora predicts that a woman, Jahel, would kill Sisara and liberate her people. Feigning love, Jahel lures the exhausted commander, who is fleeing from the rebellious Israelites, into her tent and kills him while he is sleeping, by driving a tent-peg through his temple.
The introductory symphony directly into the starting choir. This, a lamentation by the Israelites, follows a type characterised by Ospedali. Homophone tutti sections frame solo a1 or a2 passages. The second choir is singing full of the sound of rejoicing in festive D-major, and with fanfare-like dotted motifs, in which the military victory by the Israelites over the enemies is celebrated.
In Debbora’s first aria “Omnipotentes Dei” her prophesy is introduced with ceremonial, dotted horn sounds. This is an example of a semantically fixed use of wind players, frequently employed by Mayr. Here they are building “a bridge to the traditional symbolic content of the wind players’ sound for the divine or celestial” (Helen Geyer). The character of Debbora corresponds with the biblical character. In the first aria she makes her mark in her function as prophetess and bearer of a divine message.
Jahel’s concertante aria ”Quercus annosa elata” is unique. Jahel, like Judith and Esther, is among the typological figures of the Old Testament, who defeat the devil, and therefore prefigure Maria. Already her first appearance shows her as a heroic character. In a parable aria she introduces herself as an upright oak advanced in years, standing all the firmer, the stronger the storm is raging. At the start, the aria conjures up the picture of a steadfast oak by using a triad motif played in unison and directed upward. In the second verse, Jahel asks for divine help for the deed, which has been imposed on her. Mayr has composed a large aria with four concerting wind players, oboe, bassoon and two horns, also containing a cadence – in strong contrast to the preceding aria of the Israelite commander Barac, which is only accompanied by string-players.
From the beginning, Sisara is characterised as a weak hero, tormented by mental anguish. After the defeat, he has been left behind by his companions, on his own. In an accompagnato he laments his fate, and in the following cavatina “Dulces aurae” is seeking inner peace. Mayr seizes those musical means that have always made the locus amoenus audible. He uses a solo flute instead of an oboe, and a harp to provoke the impression of a natural, pastoral landscape.
Mayr obviously had a special liking for the dark soft sound of the English horn. In Sisara it accompanies an extremely intimate situation in the duettino “Veni somne”. Jahel has successfully seduced Sisara, dispelled his doubts and is now singing him to sleep. A calmly flowing characteristic style dominates the scene: reclining wind sounds, motifs directed downwards with regular string accompaniment. We are only reminded of the agony endured by the syncopation in the violins and violas in the passage “amplius tormentum”. At the end Sisara’s falling asleep becomes quite graphic, the orchestra becomes quieter and quieter, movement fades away, at the end we only hear two horns in pianissimo. After Sisara has fallen asleep, Jahel goes into action, the deadly blows with the tent-peg are made extremely vivid by the string-players. The joyful cries “oh Deus summa tua gloria” and “ecce vittoria” are answered by a pure wind section, typical for Mayr. Page revised 08.04.2006 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
