Jan Dismas Zelenka (1679-1745) & the Musical Traditions of the Past The ever-growing interest in Jan Dismas Zelenka is by now well documented by the countless recordings that have been published to date. As the milestone moment approaches when the complete oeuvre of the Bohemian-born composer will soon be available for everyone to listen, it is truly marvellous that Ensemble Inégal is today able to present a release of such great importance. This includes world-premiere CD recordings of two major early Zelenka works, which both demonstrate – each in their own way – how his musical language is firmly rooted in the traditions of the past. To emphasize this point, the third world premiere recording on this CD is Zelenka’s arrangement of Grigorio Allegri’s Miserere, one of the most famous musical works of the late Renaissance/early Baroque music. Statio quadruplex pro Processione Theophorica (ZWV 158, ca. 1709)
When the thirty-one-year-old Zelenka travelled from Prague in 1710 to take up a new position in Dresden, he was already an experienced musician and composer. We know of at least two works he packed in his luggage: first, the Easter cantata Immisit Dominus pestilentiam (ZWV 58, 1709), which he composed for the St Salvatore, the principal church of the Jesuit Clementinum college in Prague – an institute Zelenka maintained close connections with throughout his entire life. And second, the Statio quadruplex pro Processione Theophorica, which is generally considered by Zelenka scholars to be perhaps the earliest composition of the Bohemian, written pre-1710 for the Feast of Corpus Christi. Zelenka’s autograph of the first movement of four is still held in the Saxon State and University Library (SLUB) in Dresden, but the three remaining movements have long been lost. Unfortunately, eight vocal parts and one continuo part went missing from the library in 1945. When it comes to Zelenka, miracles still happen. In spring 2022, my Icelandic colleague Kjartan Óskarsson and I uncovered two previously unknown 19th century copies of the work (one complete, the other fragmentary) in the important musical library of the Musikverein – Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Vienna. The two copies, formerly in the private collection of the Austrian organist and conductor Rudolf Scholz (1933-2012), had only recently been donated and registered in the newly launched online catalogue of the library. This stunning discovery presents for the first time the full picture of Zelenka’s early polychoral masterpiece in the stile antico: parts 1-2 are for four voices and continuo, and parts 3-4 for eight voices (“2 Cori”) and continuo. For the present recording, the instruments double the voices (colla voce). Statio quadruplex was most likely composed to be sung during the Corpus Christi procession between the four altars of the St Salvatore church. Indeed, the first part, ‘Misericordia tua’, has a distinctive and natural walking rhythm even though no tempo direction are given by Zelenka here, or in the following two sections of the Vienna manuscripts. The breathtakingly beautiful and ethereal music – which sounds remarkably modern – radiates spirituality. Zelenka’s use of a permutation fugue here has been noted by Michael Talbot; this compositional method was very much in vogue in the late 17th century and early in the 18th century, and Zelenka seems to have been relatively well versed in such a complex musical process. The music moves in a similar way in ‘Exaudi, Domine’, before the double choir enters in the third movement of ‘Quiescat ira tua’. What follows is one of the great musical surprises in the Zelenka canon: the fourth movement turns out to be ‘Da pacem Domine’, which the composer orchestrated so brilliantly circa three decades later (as ZWV 167, recorded by Ensemble Inégal in 2015). At this point, the procession has reached the main altar and as a result the tempo picks up, alternating between adagio – presto, and adagio – alla breve. The effect is truly striking – the music is simply sublime. Statio quadruplex was probably first heard in Dresden in 1731 and/or 1732, when the Dresden Jesuits noted in their diary that Zelenka had provided the music for the Corpus Christi. This fits well with the performing conditions available to the composer in that period, during which Zelenka oversaw the direction and musical education of the Kapellknaben ensemble of the Catholic court church. This was an elite group of 16 young musicians, consisting at the time of a double choir, string and continuo players, who no doubt would have been responsible for singing Zelenka’s early work in Dresden. However, when this ensemble was reduced in size to six musicians in July 1733, Statio quadruplex must have dropped out of the repertory. Whether it was performed in Vienna in the 19th or 20th century is not known. The music received its modern-day premiere in the Skálholt Music Festival in Iceland in July 2023; the first performance in Prague for over 300 years took place in April 2024, when Adam Viktora directed Ensemble Inégal in a memorable concert. Allegri – Miserere (ca. 1638) Zelenka’s own inventory and manuscripts in his private collection document his special interest in the polychoral form in the early 1730s. Not only did he compose works for “2 Cori” during this period (Te Deum, ZWV 146, 1731; Missa Theophorica, ZWV 241, ca. 1732, now lost), but he also studied music for the double and triple choir settings by the composers Francesco Mancini and Antonio Lotti, respectively. Another fascinating work which entered Zelenka’s collection at the time was the four-part model of Grigorio Allegri’s (1582-1652) Miserere. A score copy in the hand of Zelenka is preserved in the SLUB; a full set of parts for “2 Cori” went missing in 1945, only to be rediscovered in Moscow in 2005 during the visit of Karl Geck, the head of the music department of the SLUB. Following an agreement between the SLUB and the Russian State Library, musical manuscripts that had been removed from Dresden to Russia in 1945 began appearing online in the websites of the two libraries, allowing scholars to examine for the first time the Allegri copies and a couple of other works from Zelenka’s collection. How Zelenka came to possess Allegri’s Miserere, a work so well guarded by the Vatican, remains a mystery. But he might have received it from Vienna in the early 1730s from his former teacher, the imperial Kapellmeister Johann Joseph Fux, along with two other Miserere settings known to have entered Zelenka’s collection at the time: one by Fux and the second by the imperial Vice-Kapellmeister Antonio Caldara. In any case, Zelenka’s copy is one of the earliest known examples outside of Rome and Vienna. Upon receiving the score Zelenka began preparing the music for performance by adding colla parte instruments and adjusting the dynamic instructions – a fairly standard procedure as seen in the many works of Palestrina in the Dresden collection. And yet, in this instance he goes against the established convention that dynamics usually escalate towards cadence with dissonance, not the other way around as here. The musical outcome of this unusual retouching is very impressing indeed. In essence, Allegri’s genius setting lies in its simplicity and the haunting beautiful melody. The two choirs, consisting of CATB as Coro I and CCAB as Coro II, alternate with each other for the twenty verses of the text, before joining together for the doxology ‘Gloria Patri’ at the end, with ‘Tutti’ as prescribed by Zelenka. On this recording Coro I is supported by a basso continuo section of cellos, double bass, bassoon and organ, while Coro II – here recorded from a slightly greater distance – is accompanied by an eight-stop violone and theorbo. A close study of the Miserere parts reveals that they were not written out by the copyists employed at the time by Zelenka; instead, by using several members of the Kapellknaben this was to be a part of their studies, given the weight and importance of music so rare and precious. The copyists include for example the ensemble’s organist Augustin Uhlig, while the violone part is copied out by the Dresden Hofkapelle double bass player Johann Samuel Kaÿser. Both of these musicians were compositional students of Zelenka, and their personal relationships despite the difference in age and position seem to have been one of friendship and respect. For example, when Uhlig married in February 1737, Zelenka acted as the best man; later that year, the Catholic Zelenka became a godparent to the Lutheran Kaÿser’s son. It is quite possible that Allegri’s Miserere was first heard in the Catholic court church on 23 March 1733. On that day the Jesuit diary noted that classes had been cancelled because the Miserere had been rehearsed at 2 o’clock in the afternoon. Two hours later, the Miserere was performed. This somewhat unusually entry is typical for the Jesuits when they reported on musical novelties or other special moments in the church. Miserere in D minor (ZWV 56, 1722; revised 1725)
In March 1722, Zelenka was commissioned to write all the works for the Holy Week, comprising of the Lamentationes, the Responsoria and the Miserere. The composer rose to the challenge and delivered music of exceptional quality, and this includes the Miserere which now finally receives its long overdue first CD recording, much to the pleasure of all Zelenka admirers. Very unfortunate circumstances led to the work being cancelled in the Catholic court church shortly before it was about to be performed on 1 April 1722. The Saxon electoral princess Maria Josepha – Zelenka’s future patron and guardian – was by then expecting a child but she had been experiencing difficulties with the pregnancy. Her consort, the electoral prince Friedrich August, conveyed the message to the composer to shorten the singing, and as a result the newly composed Miserere was not performed on this occasion. Zelenka might have decided to shelf the work at the time, and for the next three years there is no report in the Jesuit diary of the penitential psalm directed by the composer. However, on 23 March 1725 we learn from the Jesuits that Zelenka had produced the Miserere with the royal musicians and castrati. By then, he had revised his original setting and this is the version which is heard on this recording. This is another work which demonstrates Zelenka’s great knowledge of past musical traditions and complex tonal riddles. For example, in the second half of the fourth verse Zelenka instructs the singers that the section ‘Ecce peccatum meum’ (‘And my sin is ever before me’) should be performed twice: first, exactly as it is written, and the second time with the sheet held upside down – as a result, the music is to be sung backwards. Several scholars and musicians have tried to come up with a solution to Zelenka’s unusual directions but now we will hear the music exactly as the composer intended it to be experienced. With its virtuosic contrapuntal, canonic and fugal writing, and beautiful melodies that move the spirit and the heart, the Miserere in D minor is a truly elegant work from the pen of our composer. Jóhannes Ágústsson
Ensemble Inégal has performed on prestigious European festivals such as the Prague Spring Festival, Musica Antiqua Brugge, Oude Muziek Utrecht, Lufthansa Festival London, Aschaffenburger Bachtage, Bach Festival Riga and many others. Ensemble Inégal has recorded 10 successful CDs earning a range of international awards (Diapason d’or, IRR Outstanding, Goldberg 5 stars, a.o.), it features regularly in broadcasts of Czech and foreign television and radio stations (BBC, EBU, Czech Television, Czech Radio, Deutschlandradio Kultur, a.o.). Since 2007, Ensemble Inégal organizes its own concert series “Czech Baroque Music – Discoveries & Surprises”. The uniqueness of this project lies in the fact that each year it presents to the public musical discoveries and concert premieres of baroque music by Czech composers or from Czech music archives. The most significant “Discoveries & Surprises” concerts premiered works by J.D. Zelenka, A. Vivaldi, H.I.F. Biber, S. Capricornus, J.C.F. Fischer, J.J.I. Brentner, M. Vogt, J.H. Schmelzer, a.o. For the year 2012, Ensemble Inégal is preparing more significant renditions of Zelenka’s magnificent music, e.g. his breakthrough work Missa Sanctissimae Trinitatis and a performance of his large-scale Italian oratorio for Good Friday Il Serpente di Bronzo, which will be part of the Prague Spring Festival program. In preparation is a new CD for this year, in which Ensemble Inégal presents its audience with another world-premiere, its eighth recording in a row of a Zelenka work. |
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© Studio Svengali, May 2025 coded by rhaken.net |
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Ensemble Inégal was founded in the year 2000. Under the leadership of its conductor Adam Viktora, it earned international acclaim thanks to its highly praised concerts and awarded CD-recordings, thus becoming synonymous with the ongoing rediscovery of the legacy of the ingenious Czech baroque composer Jan Dismas Zelenka, of whose works it performed and recorded an unparalleled number of World Premieres. The interpretative range of the highly versatile Ensemble Inégal spans from renaissance to contemporary music. In addition to early music, the ensemble has on its account innovatory performances and recordings of romantic (Dvoøák, Rossini) and contemporary music (Britten, Pärt).
