MOZART La Clemenza di Tito

 

Mark Padmore (Tito); Alexandrina Pendatchanska (Vitellia); Bernarda Fink (Sesto); Marie-Claude Chappuis (Annio); Sunhae Im (Servilia); Sergio Foresti (Publio);

 

RIAS Kammerchor, Freiburger Barockorchester/ René Jacobs

 

The interpretation offered here of La Clemenza di Tito by René Jacobs is nothing short of revolutionary. Not only does it rehabilitate the original score in its entirety, it also restores the powerfully classical inspiration so essential to opera seria. Mozart's autograph contains no simple recitatives; but they are to be found in the performing parts prepared for the singers at the premiere (now in the Lobkowitz Archives in Prague). Just one recitative, for Publius, bears traces of a correction in Mozart's hand, to achieve a smoother lead-in to the aria which follows. As if by magic, La clemenza suddenly springs to new and exciting life...

 

Another month in the Mozart year, another Clemenza di Tito. This one, conducted by the Flemish sometime countertenor and “baroque” specialist, could hardly be more different to the DG recording under Charles Mackerras’s wise direction. Jacobs gives the score complete, including the much-reviled “dry” recitatives, possibly by Mozart’s assistant Süssmayr, which Jacobs gets his keyboard player to trick out with fanciful flourishes, including quotations from late Mozart piano concertos. Much else here is controversial. Jacobs plays fast and loose with tempo, but the performance has a more “theatrical” feel, thanks to the temperamental central performance of the Bulgarian diva Pendatchanska as a hysterical Vitellia, a prima donna spurned and bent on revenge. Bernarda Fink’s gloriously sung Sesto is another welcome addition to the Clemenza discography, while Mark Padmore’s unfailingly stylish Tito sounds more at ease with the music than DG’s Rainer Trost. Good support clinches it for a fascinating issue.

Times, Four stars 

 

Harmonia Mundi 2cds HMC901923-24