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Messa di requiem in D minor by Gaetano DONIZETTI |
 Unfinished requiem in D minor, chorus & orchestra (for his friend and composer Bellini) contains: "Judex ergo", "Domine Jesu Christe" and "Ingemisco". The requiem is dedicated to Donizetti's friend Vincenzo Bellini (1801 - 1835).
Donizetti’s teacher, Mayr, devoted a considerable amount of time to writing sacred music so it should come as no surprise to find Donizetti turning his hand to writing a Requiem Mass and doing so in a highly creditable manner. What does come as a surprise is that it is so little known.
The Mass never received a performance in Donizetti's lifetime and was only published in 1870 and was performed that year in Santa Maria Maggiore in Bergamo where Donizetti had been a choirboy.
In this requiem, Donizetti brings into play the tradition of Italian church music and a new style, thoroughly inspired by music drama, like that which was to stamp Verdi's requiem forty years later.
However, Donizetti could not disavow his training as a church musician, which emerges in the heavily word-oriented interpretation of the liturgical text and in repeated reminiscences of the rigorous compositional style.
The Mass lacks certain parts, a Sanctus, a Benedictus and an Agnus Dei, which were presumably never composed. Equally some of the orchestrations differ according to the versions used. However what exists shows Donizetti to be a powerful and compelling religious choral composer and Verdi must have known this piece when he came to write his own version of the Requiem.
The introduction has Mozartian overtones, the Kyrie a particularly strong, woeful feel, heart-breaking in its intensity; whereas the Dies Irae is a splash of colourful orchestral writing - very operatic and dramatic.
Interspersed, one finds hints of a Neapolitan song and some music which is delightfully sentimental. The solo parts are well written, especially in the Preces Meae where the brass predominates and in the later sections, where the music takes on an almost impressionistic feel.
Originally begun as a work in memory of Bellini, this mass was never finished, only published as it existed in 1870 and, ironically, its first performance occurred on the occasion of the removal of Donizetti's remains to a grander site. So although it was written for Bellini in fact, it was used for the composer. It has been revised several times since, lacking a "Sanctus", "Benedictus" and "Agnus Dei", the work is nevertheless a large-scale (lasting more than an hour), powerful and compelling work which is one of Donizetti's most important non-operatic compositions.
Source: Text: Gottfried Kraus, translation: Roger Clément www.recordsinternational.com
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