The Missa Votiva, ZWV 18, of Czech-German composer Jan Dismas Zelenka was written in 1739, late in Zelenka's life. It has something in common with the String Quartet No. 15 in A minor, Op. 132, of Beethoven: both are late works written as prayers of thanksgiving after their respective composers' recovery from serious illness. And, although the Zelenka work is virtually unknown, both are staggering masterpieces. The more Zelenka's music surfaces, the more he appears a major composer of the late Baroque; he was probably ...
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The Missa Votiva, ZWV 18, of Czech-German composer Jan Dismas Zelenka was written in 1739, late in Zelenka's life. It has something in common with the String Quartet No. 15 in A minor, Op. 132, of Beethoven: both are late works written as prayers of thanksgiving after their respective composers' recovery from serious illness. And, although the Zelenka work is virtually unknown, both are staggering masterpieces. The more Zelenka's music surfaces, the more he appears a major composer of the late Baroque; he was probably ignored for so long because his life story, during eras when audiences loved to have biographies on which to hang music, is largely obscure. This fine recording, by the Czech groups Collegium 1704 and Collegium Vocale 1704 under Václav Luks on the French label Zig-Zag Territoires, is all the more impressive in that Baroque sacred music was rare, and historically informed performance unknown, in the Czech Republic 15 years ago, both having been frowned upon by Czechoslovakia's Communist...
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