Vivaldi's Domine ad adjuvandum, RV593, is considered his 'most perfect' sacred work, exploiting the antiphonal potential of a double choir and orchestra.
Compositional Technique
Vivaldi frequently borrowed material from other composers for his sacred vocal music, especially for movements in the strict or neo-Palestrinian style, for which he had little training or inclination.
Recording & Production
This recording uses three different orchestral groupings, and the chamber organs were prepared by Simon Neal.
Composition History
A second setting of Vivaldi's Dixit Dominus, RV595, was unexpectedly discovered in the National Library in Prague in the late 1960s.
Compositional Technique
Vivaldi's Beatus vir, RV598, is unique among his sacred vocal works for one coro in being a single movement that requires both choir and soloists.
Composition History
The manuscript for Vivaldi's Dixit Dominus, RV595, dated 1738, connects the work with the Jesuit seminary of St Francis Xavier in Prague's New Town.
Historical Context
After the Jesuit order was suppressed in Bohemia in 1773, the manuscript for Vivaldi's Dixit Dominus, RV595, passed to the military order of the Knights of the Cross (Kreuzherren), whose church in Prague held many sacred works by Vivaldi.
