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INTRODUCTION (PART 1 OF 2): JAN DISMAS ZELENKA. "TE DEUM" (ZWV 146):
Collegium 1704, Festival de la Chaise-Dieu and Mezzo continue their extremely succesfull and already legendary collaboration. May that tradition last for many, many years. "Bach & Zelenka" was the title appropriately chosen this year. Recorded on 20.08.2011 in the Abbatiale Saint-Robert, France, during the 45th "Festival de la Chaise-Dieu".
-Jan Dismas Zelenka: "Te Deum" (ZWV 146) for two choirs (1731, NOT 1733)
-Johann Sebastian Bach: "Tönet, ihr Pauken! Erschallet, Trompeten!" (BWV 214), from 1733.
(For Bach's BWV 214, see part 2)
Orchestration of ZWV 146 (representative of c.1729-33, when Zelenka was de facto Kapellmeister in Dresden):
SSATB soli (and choir I), SATB (choir II); 4 trumphets; timpani; 2 flutes; 2 oboes; 2 bassoons; 2 violins; viola; basso continuo.
Occasion: Royal Birth. Celebration of Maria Josepha's delivery in November 1731.
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MUSICAL SUBDIVISIONS, PERFORMERS:
Jan-Dismas Zelenka (1679-1745)
Te Deum in D major for two choirs (ZWV 146, 1731)
1. Te Deum laudamus (Choir)
2. Tu rex gloriae (Soprano I and II)
3. Tu ad liberandum (Alto)
4. Tu ad dexteram Dei sedes (Tenor and Bass)
5. Judex crederis (Choir)
6. Aeterna fac (Choir)
7. Intonatio : Salvum fac
8. Et rege eos (Choir)
9. Per singulos dies (Soprano I, II and Alto)
10. In te, Domine (Choir)
SOLOISTS:
soprano I - Hana Blazikova
soprano II - Dora Pavlikova
alto - Marketa Cukrova, Kamila Mazalova
tenor - Sebastian Monti
bariton - Tomas Kral
Collegium 1704
Václav Luks, Direction
Concert held 20 August 2011 in the Abbatiale Saint-Robert, France.
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THE BACH (BWV 214) & ZELENKA (ZWV 146) -COMPARISON
Firstly, historical circumstances bring ZWV 146 and BWV 214 close to each other. Maria Josepha, Electress of Saxony and the two composers' common Queen, is the person honoured in both works. BWV 214 was performed in Leipzig during her 1733 birthday celebrations. In 1733 Bach also made another attempt to impress the Royal Couple with a Dresden performance of the original version of his b minor Mass. Undoubtedly the intention to impress the Royal Family was also among the reasons why Zelenka invested so much resources in this "Te Deum"- setting. ZWV 146 was performed in the Dresden Court Chapel, either as an act of thanksgiving on the day after Maria Josepha's successful birth of a girl on 5 Nov. 1731, then in the presence of her Husband the Electoral Prince, or during the subsequent churching of the mother on 15 Dec.
Whether the patrons were impressed or not, neither of the two composers obtained the desired post as the Saxon Court's new Kapellmeister. Although these ambitions failed, they must have met during the 1730-33 attempts, when Bach was a frequent guest in Dresden. We find not only circumstancial evidence, but in this case even a direct CONFIRMATION that Johann Se
