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Out of Dresden's Ashes

Thomas Busse on May 10, 2011
Thomas Jeffrey

In his opening remarks before Sunday’s concert at St. Mark’s Lutheran church in San Francisco, American Bach Soloists’ Artistic Director Jeffrey Thomas made only scant mention of the specter lurking behind the choir’s final program of the season: the date February 13, 1945. The firebombing of Dresden — the city that Goethe’s mentor, Herder, called “Florence on the Elbe” — on that day represents not only the physical loss of a Baroque city built during a golden age, but also how easily cultural and artistic achievement can be forgotten once it slips from public memory.

Dresden, the capitol of Saxony, reached its ascendency between 1692 and 1763 when its rulers also became the kings of Poland. The monarchs accumulated artistic and architectural treasures, turning the city into a leading center of art. In this spirit, the ruler August II, while on a trip to Venice to pick up some canvases of Titian and Michelangelo, recruited singers for a new opera company (including the castrato Senesino, who would become Handel’s leading singer in London), several famous instrumentalists, and a few composers, including Antonio Lotti, who remained in Dresden for three years. The Dresden court’s orchestra was regarded as Europe’s finest.

Antonio Lotti

Central to ABS’ program was Lotti’s Missa a tre cori, an astonishingly good Mass that received its modern
premiere at Harvard University only in 1996, after a privately held manuscript entered its collection. Works composed for the court were regarded as the ruler’s private property and were carefully guarded. Circulating copies were disguised to hide their provenance. The only other known source of the Mass is held in the former East German Saxon State Library, for years walled off from scholars in yet another gesture of political expediency. ABS’ violone player, Steve Lehning, took on the arduous task of making a performing edition.

Contrary to the title, the Mass does not require three choirs; instead, it shows off a variety of styles — Italianate vocalism tailored to the Italian opera singers performing chapel services, but with German instrumentation and counterpoint. Lotti composed for some of the best singers and instrumentalists of his age, and, as with much Baroque music, his work requires excellent singing to achieve its effect. The professional American Bach Choir sets the standard in choral singing, and the singers rose to their level Sunday.

Very special were the setting of “Et in terra pax” for low voices and low strings; “Gratias agimus,” a soprano aria clearly inspiring Handel (who visited Dresden with Telemann in 1719 to hear three new operas by Lotti); and virtuosic oboe playing by Debra Nagy to accompany a plaintive alto aria in Lotti’s “Qui sedes.” 

Courting a Position

Bach's famous D-major Magnificat, heard after the Lotti Mass, displayed those elements meant to appeal to the Dresden court when Bach prepared the work for that court in 1733, in hopes of securing a position there. It was easy to hear why he did not get a job: Lotti’s music, written by a German-trained Italian singer for Italian singers in Germany, felt free and spontaneous, in spite of all the craftsmanship. By contrast, Bach’s music, even moderated as it is in the Magnificat, is awkward and dense despite its ingenuity.

The ABS choir, alas, assumed a different standing position in the Magnificat, and the vocal soloists, drawn from the ABS “academy,” no longer sang with the choir. This hurt the balance, disfavoring the soprano and alto parts. I recognize how creating young-artist programs attracts funding, but a simpler and fairer way to promote younger singers is just to hire them. All the vocal soloists on Sunday had strong resumes, and even stronger voices. Soprano Shari Wilson, alto Abigail Fischer, and in particular baritone Mischa Bouvier performed at a level far beyond student work. Soprano Danielle Reutter-Harrah’s attractive tone may need a few more years to mature, while tenor Scott Mello lacked stage presence.

As much as I believe Lotti’s Mass should be hung on display with the rest of the permanent collection, I suspect it will go back into storage. Fine works of other excellent Dresden court composers — Heinichen, Hasse, and to some extent Zelenka — have failed to gain a foothold in our ossified repertory. It might be said, then, that Dresden's physical destruction was capped by the fading of its artistic glory from public consciousness.