Richard Pennycuick wrote:

>Apart from a couple of orchestral pieces, Zelenka's music has somehow
>managed to pass me by.  On the radio this morning, I heard a very
>attractive choral work whose identity has yet to be posted to the station's
>web site.  In the meantime, I'd be interested in any suggestions and/or
>recordings of Zelenka's choral works.

I am a great Zelenka fan.  So here are my recommendations of vocal works.
Not choral are his settings of the Lamentations of Jeremiah, but it is
great music: 6 short cantatas for alto, tenor and bass respectively, with
oboe, strings and bc.  I would recommend Jacobs, De Mey, Widmer, with the
Orchestra of the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis (dhm) or Groenewold, Meens,
Van Egmond with the Academy of the Begynhof (Amsterdam) directed by
Roderick Shaw (Globe).  Then there are the masses.  The Missa Dei Filii
has been recorded (together with the Litaniae Lauretanae) by the Stuttgart
Chamber Choir and Tafelmusik, directed by Frieder Bernius - the soloists
are Argenta, Chance, Pregardien and Jones (dhm).  Bernius also recorded
(for Sony) the Missa Ultimarum sexta.  Marek Stryncl recorded the Missa
Sanctissimae Trinitatis with his ensemble Musica Florea on Matous.  Not
quite convincing, but still worth checking out is the recording of the
Missa Dei Patris by Ludwig Guttler and his Virtuosi Saxoniae (Berlin
Classics).

Also interesting, and very well performed, is the oratorio I penitenti al
sepolcro del redentore for 3 solo voices, choir and orchestra, with the
Capella Regia Musicalis, an ensemble from Prague directed by Robert Hugo
(Matous).  Then there is a Requiem and a setting of the Miserere, with the
Czech Chamber Choir and the Ensemble Baroque 1994 (Supraphon).

Good luck.

Johan van Veen
Utrecht (Netherlands)
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