Vivaldi: Dixit Dominus
Dresden musicians
Peter Kopp conducting
Review by: Robert Zierolf

It's always exciting to discover a previously unknown work by a major composer, especially when the work is of high quality. This is the fortunate case with Vivaldi's Dixit Dominus, recently discovered in Dresden.

Sent to the Saxon court in the mid-eighteenth century by an unscrupulous copy shop owner as being by Baldassarre Galuppi, an important successor to Vivaldi in Venice, this setting of a traditional Latin text will further burnish Vivaldi's reputation as a superb composer of more than instrumental music. Three sacred choral works by Galuppi are also included and the careful listener will notice that Galuppi would be proud to accept authorship of the "Red Priest's" long-unattributed work.

The recording by Peter Kopp conducting Dresden musicians performing in Baroque style is adequate for a first hearing of Dixit Dominus, but more polish and attention to precision would be welcome. I suspect more recordings, perhaps paired with Vivaldi's well-known Gloria, are forthcoming.

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Robert Zierolf is Professor of Music Theory and History and Division head of Composition, Musicology, and Theory at the College-Conservatory of Music, University of Cincinnati. He is also a freelance writer on classical music.