Elena Sartori - Martini: Requiem & Missa Solemnis (2013)

It's kind of hard to tell what Tactus' Padre Giovanni Battista Martini: Requiem e Missa Solemnis is from looking at the front cover. These are organ masses, and the choir Melodi Cantores, though given equal billing, is a men's group that only supplies brief chant incipits at the beginnings of mass movements elaborated further on the organ. The sources for these organ masses consist of six large manuscript volumes of liturgical organ music in Martini's hand at the Civico Museo Bibliografico Musicale in Bologna and dating from between 1742 and 1747; they appear to have been compiled for a publication in the manner of Frescobaldi's Fiori Musicali that apparently never came to fruition. The florid style of Frescobaldi, too, is readily apparent in the brilliant opening track Toccata per l'Offertorio, which gives testimony to the currency that Frescobaldi's music retained in the Roman church even a century after he died. In listening to this music, one wonders if annotator Jolando Scarpa is hearing the same album that we are; despite the note writer's frequent citations of style galant detectable in Martini's music here, this music is solidly Baroque and there is hardly any evidence of the style here, except in the peppy "Post Communio" movements. These organ masses are strictly for liturgical use and Martini may have felt that the close association of style galant with the opera house would have rendered unsuitable for use in church. Also liturgically intended are the very short phrases in which most of the music is constructed. Intended to fall between scripture readings, responses, and other parts of the mass, the pieces are often so short that they do not provide much in the way of listening pleasure.

Organist Elena Sartori is a commanding player, and she finds a good variety of registrations on the Baroque organ at the Chiesa di Sam Michele in Bosco, Bologna, to keep a certain amount of variety in the music and head off any sense of monotony. However, there is very much a measure of love in her playing of this music, and indeed, how could one love it, given its strong orientation toward the busywork of conducting a church service? To her credit, Sartori does succeed in raising the level of her playing above mere duty, and the three movements that open the disc are in their way spectacular. This only accounts for the first 10 minutes of a disc that occupies more than an hour, and this should influence one's decision as to whether Tactus' Padre Giovanni Battista Martini: Requiem e Missa Solemnis is worth it. Given the sizeable quantity of Martini's output for organ, never before recorded, one wonders if the label started picking from the wrong end of the pile. ~ Uncle Dave Lewis