Zelenka - Miserere in d minor, ZWV 56. {Autograph score + 4k HD}

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The autograph score to the earlier and very rarely heard Miserere setting by Jan Dismas Zelenka in d minor, /Z. 56/.
Commissioned in 1722 for the Holy Week services at the Dresden Hofkapelle, Zelenka’s Miserere in
D minor demonstrates virtuosic handling of a wide range of contrapuntal techniques.
Zelenka drew upon his deep knowledge of past musical traditions, honed through his earlier studies in Vienna with Fux and his circle, to provide individual sections of the Miserere with systematic explorations of freely imitative, canonic and fugal writing as well as subtle demonstrations of invertible counterpoint, retrograde motion and melodic inversion. The result is a work that offers insight into Zelenka’s abilities to exploit the combinative potential of his motivic materials in settings that maintain expressive as well as technical originality.
On 24 March 1722, Jan Dismas Zelenka received a commission from Friedrich August,
heir to the court of Saxony-Dresden, and his wife Maria Josepha to provide music for Holy
Week at the Dresden Hofkapelle. Zelenka brought considerable experience and expertise
to this commission, not only in instrumental performance but also in compositional techniques, the latter honed during his period of study in Vienna with Johann Joseph Fux sometime during 1716–19. The commission in 1722 may have therefore represented a golden opportunity for Zelenka, who had been employed by the Dresden court as a violone player since either 1710 or 1711. The works for Holy Week resulting from the commission included the Lamentationes pro Hebdomada Sancta /Z. 53/, the Responsoria pro Hebdomada Sancta /Z. 55/, the Miserere in d minor /Z. 56/ and the Benedictus Dominus /Z. 206/. These works signaled Zelenka’s commitment to establishing the musical traditions of the revitalized Catholic Church in Dresden, and the 1720s were very prolific years for his composition of new sacred repertoire for the Hofkapelle.
The Miserere in d minor represents Zelenka at the height of his creative powers, with his enthusiasm for counterpoint spurred by the 1722 commission and his experiences under Fux’s tutelage still fresh in his mind. While Zelenka’s skill as a contrapuntist has been acknowledged in many modern studies of his music, there is as yet no comprehensive assessment of his expertise in counterpoint or his indebtedness to earlier contrapuntal traditions transmitted through Italian and German sources during the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries

Intended for performance during Holy Week in 1722, the Miserere in d minor was withdrawn at the request of the elector’s heir, Friedrich August, who was concerned about the length of the work. Undeterred, Zelenka apparently kept the work in mind for later occasions and a revised version of the work appears to have been performed in 1725. The later version replaces a small number of sections of the earlier work but otherwise demonstrates Zelenka’s undiminished interest in contrapuntal techniques. Specifically, the settings of ‘Redde mihi’, ‘Gloria patri’ and the final Amen were added material in the 1725 version that did not appear in the 1722 version.

I: Miserere mei Deus (Chorus) - 00:00
II: Et secundum (Chorus) - 2:07
III: Amplius lava me (Chorus) - 4:22
IV: Quoniam iniquitatem meam (Tenor) - 5:45
V: Et peccatum meum (Chorus) - 7:55
VI: Tibi soli peccavi (Chorus, Fugue) - 9:01
VII: Ut iustificeris (Chorus) - 12:00
VIII: Ecce enim (Bass) - 12:40
IX: Asparges me, hysopo et mundabor (Chorus, Canon in hyper) - 14:43
X: Auditui meo dabis gaudium, Averte faciem tuam (Chorus) - 16:41
XI: Redde mihi laetitiam salutaris tui (Soprano, Tenor, Bass) - 18:04
XII: Docebo iniquos vias tuas (Chorus, Versetto circolare) - 19:18
XIII: Benigne fac Domine in tua Sion (Tenor) - 21:27
XIV: Tunc acceptabis sacrificium iustitiae (Chorus) - 24:01
XV: Tunc inponent super altare tuum vitulos (Chorus, Fugue) - 24:40
XVI: Gloria Patri et Filio (Soprano, Alto, Tenor) - 27:55
XVII: Amen (Chorus, Fugue) - 28:39

Performer(s): Václav Luks, Collegium 1704

DISCLAIMER: This video was made under the law of fair use and education, with the score providing invaluable musicological insight into composition of one of the greatest composer's of the Baroque period, Jan Dismas Zelenka.
However should the rights holder(s) have a issue with the video, contact me immediately and I will likewise remove the video as soon as possible.
This performance can be bought or rented @ https://collegium1704.com/en/universo...