Mozart's cantata Davide penitente, written in 1785, was composed for the Vienna Society of Artists, a charity which Mozart hoped would take care of his wife and children when he died.
The work re-uses a large amount of the Mass in C minor, of 1782-3, but squeezes the original Latin settings into Lorenzo da Ponte's Italian text. The musical style does not allow da Ponte the expressive freedom that he experienced when writing Mozart's opera libretti, and the Italian language can fit awkwardly into this recycled musical setting. For Davide penitente, two new arias and an expanded final cadential figure were composed. Both arias draw their inspiration from Italian opera of the period: the second, the first soprano's Tra l'oscure ombre funeste, climaxes with decorations suspiciously similar to those from Constanze's aria in Die Entführung aus dem Serail, and we are unsurprised to discover that both roles - Constanze and the first soprano here - were written by Mozart for the same singer, Caterina Cavalieri.
The performance here is to be recommended, as there are few recordings of this forgotten cantata in the catalogue. The Immortal Bach Ensemble, sing their choral numbers very finely. However, certain numbers can be given what seems understated treatment, the contrapuntal lines of the concluding chorus intricately articulated and balanced but lacking bass power, missing the music's heroic, triumphant aspect. However, the choral sound is clear and fresh, if slightly distant, lines tending to be lost beneath the orchestral playing. The Leipziger Kammerorchester do play well, but I found some of Morten Schuldt-Jensen's tempi to be damagingly fast. Gravity is lost at the work's very beginning, the orchestral introduction skipped through briskly, while the trio Tutte le mie speranze could be held back occasionally to help the singers in the fast, taxing vocal writing.
Trine Wilsberg Lund and Kristina Wahlin make an attractive pair of soprano soloists, though both lack a final coating of polish to their voices, register changes and high-lying lines sometimes harshly delivered; the former boasts some clean coloratura. Lothar Odinius has a pleasant, only slightly forced tenor voice, but his aria A te, frat anti affanni, for all the beauty of the accompaniment's solo woodwind, lacks personality, and tends to seem monotonous.
Mozart's earlier Regina coeli, of 1771, is a pithy and well performed companion piece.
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