Luogo e data di registrazione		Tituskirche, Basel (Svizzera) - 26-30 aprile 1974
	Registrazione: live / studio		studio
	Producer / Engineer		Gerd Berg / Johann-Nikolaus Matthes / Wolfgang Gülich
	Prima Edizione LP		EMI Electrola "Reflexe" - 1C 063-30 121 - (1 lp) - durata 41' 13" - (p) 1974 - Analogico
	Prima Edizione CD		EMI "Classics" - CMS 7 63421 2 - (2 cd) - durata 58' 41" - 63' 07" - (c) 1990 - ADD - (Carissimi)
	Edizione CD		EMI "Classics" - 8 26490 2 - (1 cd) - durata 41' 13" - (c) 2000 - ADD
	Note		-

In the historia divitis Carissimi combined the scriptural history on the rich man with dramatic passages that embellish the story in a nearly theatrical way. In these sections favorite and cappella choir - partly engaged in dialogue with the dives - unite and from great sound blocks. The narration by the historicus and the words by the characters (Dives, Abraham) are relatively simple, but most impressive solo declamations with figured bass accompaniment. A third element is given by comtemplative and didactic passages which demand the novel type of cantare con affetto. The result of these contrasts is a charming combination of the rather traditional double choir style with modern monody, of plain, but ever impressive harmony with casual chromatic passages, of complex sound with line. The performers are supposed to achieve the plasticity of a ‘didactic play’ by means of deliberately formed contrasts. Again and again the soloists must decide which is the appropriate dimension and significant distribution of intesifying means in performance (such as ornamentation, dynamic and agogic accent). The distribution ofthe figured bass as well - which the composer has not written in full - must contribute to the deepening of the contents of the biblical text and the poetical work. In the present recording the theorbo and lute were employed as ornamenting instruments. According to Agazzari (1607) this means “the running up and down of the fingers on the strings”, that is the bass line is ornamented for the embellishment of the sound picture. The organ, chitarrone and partly the harpsichord were more frequently employed as ground instruments. In the corresponding parts of the composition the provide a calm, all-combining colour. In the solo parts each character is given typifying continuo accompaniment. Some ornamental, text-interpreting figures have been written in full by the composer. In most cases, however, the singer himself must find the appropriate means of performance (such as rising and sinking voice, coloratura). They result from the right understanding of the text and the knowledge of contemporary sources. The part of the strings is still small in Carissimi. It is mostly confined to ritornels with organizing function in form and intensification of the tutti. Hans-Martin Linde Translation by Gudrun Meier The orgins of oratorio are closely bound up with the lay piety which was particularly marked in Italy and which gave rise, in the 13th century, to the founding of organised fraternities. “Oratorio” first denoted the chapel, or oratory, in which the members of the order gathered to sing and worship. Music played a major part in these devotions, and it was in this setting that, in Rome in the first half of the 17th century, the gradual evolution of oratorio as a musical form came about. The form had various antecedents, the most important of these being the religious dialogue set to music. Whereas the “oratorio volgare", sung in italian, attracted a wide public to S. Maria in Vallicella, the tradition of the “oratorio latino” was fostered at the church of S. Marcello by the “Arciconfraternita del SS. Crocifisso", a socially and intellectually more exclusive community which had been active since 1526. The Italian oratorio acquired a widespread following in the course of the 17th century, both in Italy itself and abroad, but the Crocifisso Fraternity’s “oratorio” maintained its position at the centre of the form’s Latin branch. Among the composers of oratorio latino an equally central role was played by one person: - Giacomo Carissimi. He was born in Marino (Castelli Romani) in 1605, the son of a fairly prosperous cooper, and had held posts in the cathedrals of Tivoli (1623-1627) and Assisi (1627-1629) before being appointed music teacher and Kapellmeister of the Sant’Apollinare church at the Jesuit Collegium Germanicum Hungaricum in Rome. Here he was to spend the rest of a life crowned with fame and success (the latter also in financial terms - much, to quote a peevish remark by a member of the college, to his detriment). Carissimißs Latin oratorios represent at once the beginning of the genre and its zenith. But he was not its creator. The first dawning of both the Latin and Italian oratorio is somewhat obscure, since the earlier, traditional material surviving is both scant and fragmentary. Moreover, like the oratorios of Carissimi himself, it can hardly be dated. However, we do know, from the French traveller André Maugars 1639 account of the Crocifisso Fraternity’s performances, that these were then already an established institution - suggesting that they must have started considerably earlier. Maugars contrasts the Sant‘Apollinare performances with the grandiose presentations at S. Maria sopra Minerva (with no less than ten choirs positioned around the church) and refers to them as a “different sort of music”, known as the “stile recitativo”. The service would begin with a psalm motet, followed in turn by an instrumental piece, a story from the Old Testament, a sermon and, finally, the day’s reading from the Gospels, the two Biblical texts being rendered musically with parts assigned. If Carissimi, in these “recitativo" parts, is standing on ground provided by the later works of Monteverdi, the choruses - which, though not mentioned by Maugars, are nonetheless important in Carissimi - show the lingering influence of the Palestrina and polychoral Venetian styles. Carissimi was not an innovator; his musical resources were simple, but used with perfect mastery and artistic ingenuity. In the baroque era the art of faithfully reproducing the spoken word in music was held to be one of a composer’s highest attributes. And it is for this merit above all that Carissimi’s works have, all along, earned fame and admiration. Just as, on the formal plane, both individual word accentuation and the broader grammatical groupings are  perfectly rendered, so, too, where content is concerned, are the individual concepts and the greater bodies of meaning transcending these. All this makes Giacomo Carissimi doubly deserving of our acclamation as the master of musical oratorio. Theophil Antonicek Translation by R. C. Sigee In accordance with contemporary practice the performance of the oratorio Dives Malus by Carissimi was preceded by that of the Symphonia in G by Gregorio Allegri.
EMI Electrola "Reflexe"