Gossec’s Messe des
Morts has made a number of appearances
on disc over the last decade but Capriccio’s
offering is a recording originally made
thirty years ago and now presented in
SACD. It’s none the less interesting
for all that and gives a fair idea of
the grandeur and curiously compelling
intimacy of Gossec’s first large-scale
work of 1760. It is one of the most
strikingly dramatic effects is the use
of a combination of three trombones
and four clarinets in the Tuba mirium
and Mors stupebit et natura.
A demerit of the recording
is that the choir sounds rather too
distant; it also succeeds in emphasising
some of the two female soloist’s sibilants
and adds a rather glassy sound to the
orchestral strings. Against that we
should note that they do sing well and
that the baritone Alessandro Corbelli
makes a fine showing in Tuba mirum.
The Mors stupebit
is genuinely powerful in this performance
– the dramatic string crescendi presaging
the choral outburst are excellently
realised. Of the two women soloists
Hildegard Laurich has rather an androgynous
alto and whilst Eva Csapó’s powerful
voice can threaten to overbalance textures
she can scale down volume and tone to
appreciable effect as indeed she does
in the trio Recordare Jesu pie.
One of the highlights
of the work and of this performance
is the chorus Confutatis maledictis
from the Dies Irae which positively
quivers with tensile power, slashing
strings and choral strength. That curious
moment in the Lachrymosa, where
Gossec summons up Pergolesi’s Stabat
Mater in almost direct copy, is
here as spine-tingling as it ever is.
Csapó takes her Offertorium
aria Spera in Deo with considerable
authority and the choir bring, albeit
acoustically somewhat distant, consolation
in the Pie Jesu Domine in the
Sanctus. Herbert Schernus directs
his forces with a due distinction for
the more interior laments and the more
public dramas that the work evoke.
I wasn’t able to play
this SACD on anything other than an
ordinary set up and am interested to
know how it would sound on a dedicated
machine. As I suggested it sounds to
me recessive and not ideally focused.
It’s possible, I suppose, that there
would be a spatial advantage in SACD
for this most grand of works but I remain
unconvinced on the evidence of a simple
play-through. Not ideal then but it
certainly enshrines many virtuous things.
Jonathan Woolf
Zane Turner also
enjoyed
this disc
Eva Csapó (soprano) 
CAPRICCIO SACD 71 043 [66.02]
