WEB FLAC (tracks) – 332 Mb | MP3 CBR 320 kbps – 155 Mb | Digital booklet | 01:07:18Classical, Opera | Label: Glossa MusicThe modern-day appreciation of Francesco Bartolomeo Conti takes a decisive turn in the direction of his church music with this early eighteenth-century composer’s Missa Sancti Pauli given an ideal recording on Glossa by György Vashegyi, the Purcell Choir and Orfeo Orchestra.

Conti was a Florentine who worked for much of his career in the Imperial Court in Vienna, generating much attention there – the ever-observant JS Bach and Zelenka were both known to have been attracted by his music.

Curiously, it was liturgical works like this 1715 Missa Sancti Pauli which kept Conti’s name known until near to the end of the nineteenth century rather than the operas, oratorios and cantatas with which he delighted the Viennese Court and which have hitherto been receiving the attention of artists and record labels today.

If Conti’s church music is less fledgling Classical than his dramatic fare, there is much in the way of melodic tunefulness and concertato style – for both voices and instruments – to combine with fugal-imitative writing reminiscent of the stile antico.

The work is a Credo Mass, with its rondo-like restatement of the word in the Credo section.

The tone, control, presence and unity of the Purcell Choir have been amply demonstrated already on Glossa in music of the French Baroque – Rameau and Mondonville in particular – and the singers are given full opportunity to shine in Conti’s mass – as are the orchestra, comprised mainly of strings, and the vocal soloists, who include Adriána Kalafszky, Péter Bárány, Zoltán Megyesi and Thomas Dolié.

Bárány and Megyesi are also soloists in two additional works: the motet, Fastos caeli audite and the aria Pie Jesu, ad te refugio.

Tracklist:01. Missa Sancti Pauli: No. 1, Kyrie eleison02. Missa Sancti Pauli: No. 2, Christe eleison03. Missa Sancti Pauli: No. 3, Kyrie eleison II04. Missa Sancti Pauli: No. 4, Gloria in excelsis Deo05. Missa Sancti Pauli: No. 5, Et in terra pax06. Missa Sancti Pauli: No. 6, Laudamus te07. Missa Sancti Pauli: No. 7, Propter magnam gloriam tuam08. Missa Sancti Pauli: No. 8, Domine Deus09. Missa Sancti Pauli: No. 9, Qui tollis10. Missa Sancti Pauli: No. 10, Qui tollis II11. Missa Sancti Pauli: No. 11, Qui sedes12. Missa Sancti Pauli: No. 12, Quoniam tu solus sanctus13. Missa Sancti Pauli: No. 13, Sonata. Largo-Allegro assai14. Missa Sancti Pauli: No. 14, Fastos caeli audite15. Missa Sancti Pauli: No. 15, Exultent filii Sion16. Missa Sancti Pauli: No. 16, Alleluja17. Missa Sancti Pauli: No. 17, Credo in unum Deum18. Missa Sancti Pauli: No. 18, Crucifixus19. Missa Sancti Pauli: No. 19, Et resurrexit20. Missa Sancti Pauli: No. 20, Et in Spiritum Sanctum21. Missa Sancti Pauli: No. 21, Et vitam venturi22. Missa Sancti Pauli: No. 22, Sanctus23. Missa Sancti Pauli: No. 23, Benedictus24. Missa Sancti Pauli: No. 24, Hosanna25. Missa Sancti Pauli: No. 25, Agnus Dei26. Missa Sancti Pauli: No. 26, Agnus Dei II27. Missa Sancti Pauli: No. 27, Dona nobis pacem28. Missa Sancti Pauli: No. 28, Pie Jesu, ad te refugio