Johann Adolf Hasse was perhaps the most famous composer of the middle 18th century, with a long career that made him famous all over Europe. His main field of activity was the stylized opera seria, which has been slow to find revivals. But Hasse's choral music has found a wider listenerhip, and this pairing, representing different phases of the composer's career, is a welcome addition to the Hasse discography. Perhaps the more attractive of the two pieces is the Miserere in C minor, first performed probably in 1730 or 1731 ...
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Johann Adolf Hasse was perhaps the most famous composer of the middle 18th century, with a long career that made him famous all over Europe. His main field of activity was the stylized opera seria, which has been slow to find revivals. But Hasse's choral music has found a wider listenerhip, and this pairing, representing different phases of the composer's career, is a welcome addition to the Hasse discography. Perhaps the more attractive of the two pieces is the Miserere in C minor, first performed probably in 1730 or 1731 by the choir of the Ospedale degli Incurabili in Venice. This was similar to the milieu in which Antonio Vivaldi worked, and indeed Hasse's Miserere, with several gorgeous arias interspersed among lightly contrapuntal choral movements, would make an ideal pairing to spice up a performance of Vivaldi's Gloria in D major, RV 589, with something less well known. The Requiem in C major was written for the state funeral of Hasse's patron, the Dresden Elector Frederick Augustus II, in...
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