It was once commonplace to quip that Rossini’s Petite Messe Solennelle is misnamed on the grounds that it is neither little nor solemn – a quip that certainly seems to have the ring of truth. At 70 or so minutes, it’s not exactly short. And much of the music has an elegant, joyous quality far removed from conventional ideas of devotional austerity. Appearances can be deceptive, however, and it is now acknowledged that the piece has darker overtones than previously thought.
Rossini numbered it among what he called his “sins of old age” – a series of late works written long after his operatic career was over, with little concession to public, critical or institutional taste. It was first performed privately, in a chamber version, in 1864, then revised and fully orchestrated between 1866 and 1868. As a statement of faith, it is unswervingly optimistic, though the work has its origins in personal sadness. The inspirational trigger is reckoned to have been the death, in 1861, of Rossini’s Swiss friend Louis Niedermayer, a noted scholar of baroque and Renaissance music, and it is possible to see the piece as a portrait of a contented friendship in which the two men’s musical interests are placed side by side. The choruses owe much to Bach and Palestrina, while the solos, sometimes teetering on the edge of bravura, are reminiscent of Rossini’s later operas.
Ottavio Dantone has long been a champion of the work, which he conducted in a notably grand performance in Liverpool in 2012. This recording, made last year in the Basilica of St Denis in Paris, is smaller in scale, more intimate and touching. You sense the shafts of sorrow behind the orchestral grace and choral refinement. The solo quartet is at times uneven, with bass Alexander Vinogradov a bit too imposing for the performance’s scale, and tenor Michael Spyres just occasionally pushed in his upper registers. Julia Lezhneva is the super-cool soprano, though the best singing comes from mezzo Delphine Galou, admirably noble yet restrained, above all in the deeply felt Agnus Dei.
