Vivaldi’s only surviving oratorio, Juditha Triumphans, has been delighting collectors since the early 1950s when Angelo Ephrikian made the earliest recording on LP (Nixa, 8/52 – nla). In the subsequent course of almost half a century there have been surprisingly few additions to that and, at least in the UK, lamentably few performances. Robert King’s new recording has only one rival on period instruments, that of Nicholas McGegan (Hungaroton, 4/91 – nla). The others, in order of merit, are directed by Vittorio Negri (Philips), Alberto Zedda (Angelicum – not available in the UK), and Ferenc Szekeres (Hungaroton, 3/69 – nla). Ephrikian and Szekeres used a version by Vittorio Frazzi with transposed vocal parts but the others respect the intentions of the composer, who wrote all the solo roles for the female voices of the Ospedale della Pieta in Venice, where he was both in charge of the orchestra and, at the time, acting choirmaster. The work, with its Latin libretto by Giacomo Cassetti, dates from 1716.
In his introduction, Michael Talbot surmises that the oratorio would have been introduced by a sinfonia. That seems likely, but none has survived, so two movements from one of Vivaldi’s colourfully scored concertos con molto stromenti (RV555) serve as a preface to King’s recording. The cast, with Ann Murray in the title-role, is a strong one, and the wonderfully diverse instrumental obbligatos are a constant delight; yet the sum of the parts does not always add up to an entirely rewarding whole. My feeling is that the drama, a powerful one, is understated. Ann Murray is certainly one of the most beautiful-sounding Judiths I have heard – her deeply reflective “Quanto magis generosa”, providing a vital insight into her character, is very affectingly sung and played – but she does not match the forceful and commanding Oralia Dominguez in the Zedda recording. Her appearance in the role, on London’s South Bank, in the mid-1970s, with the Virtuosi di Roma under Renato Fasano, has left an indelible mark.
Anyone coming to this work for the first time will, of course, be unencumbered by comparisons, and will probably be delighted by who and what they hear in the new recording. That is as it should be since, overall, this is the most stylish if not always the most dramatically satisfying of the versions to have appeared on disc. Certainly, Maria Cristina Kiehr turns in a performance of constant pleasure as Holofernes’s servant Vagaus and Sarah Connolly’s fuller-textured voice, with its warmth of timbre, conveys a sympathetic picture of Abra, Judith’s servant.
There is more passion to the story of Judith and Holofernes and Vivaldi’s setting of it than we are allowed to hear in this new performance but said, King’s reading, more than any other, allows us to revel in the sheer beauty and kaleidoscopic brilliance of Vivaldi’s score. His singers and players have served him well, and the performance is certainly one I shall want to hear many times over.'