Ensemble Les Nations & Maria Luisa Baldassari - Perti: Il Mosè conduttor del popolo ebreo (2013)

The revival of the oratorio Mosè liberatore del popolo ebreo (1685), for five voices, trumpet and strings, celebrates the 350th anniversary of the birth of Giacomo Antonio Perti, a versatile Bolognese musician who was born in 1661 and died in 1756 at the age of 95, after more than seventy years of musical activity.

Mosè, a miniature opera (as baroque oratorios basically were), presents a series of characters that are skilfully outlined by Perti’s lively music. The characters that stand out are the solemn, tormented Moses (alto); the haughty, quick-tempered Pharaoh (a virtuoso, agile bass); and the Text, who relates events and comments on them - when the oratorio was performed for the first time, this role was assigned to one of the greatest male altos of those days.

Perti’s arias require great virtuosity in the singers (in this edition, recorded by the ensemble Les Nations, there are some of the best Italian specialists of baroque singing) and in the trumpet player. The trumpet is an unusual presence, but this instrument was much appreciated in the Bolognese musical milieu of that period, and it lends a really unique instrumental timbre to the composition.