Sacred works by Domenico Zipoli and Johann Sebastian Bach.

Crescendo received the Alfred Nash Patterson Award given by Choral Arts New England for this program, presented in New England in November of 2014. Crescendo was recipient of a national award, the Chorus America/ASCAP Alice Parker Award in 2014.

Jesuit musician and missionary in South America, Domenico Zipoli, was a successful organist and composer in Rome before his departure to Argentina in 1717. Zipoli became the most famous Baroque composer in South America – his works were performed all over the continent and his reputation spread from there to Europe. His works were lost for more than 200 years, surfacing in the late 1970s. Crescendo presents his sacred works in a unique way by combining Baroque Period instruments with Andean instruments and combining adult and youth voices in the chorus. The works on the program are “Misa San Ignacio,” excerpts of “Visperas de San Ignacio” and “Laudate Dominum.”

As a contrast, the program features two sacred cantatas by the well known German Lutheran composer, Johann Sebastian Bach. The choral cantata “Nach Dir, Herr, verlanget mich” BWV 150 is an early work of Bach. This cantata shows the influence of the Italian style in the young master. Even though the casting (lacking violas in the orchestra) and the abundance of short choral movements with contrasting affects makes it similar to Zipoli’s works, Bach’s depth and mastery of counterpoint makes this work unmistakably unique. The soprano solo cantata “Alles mit Gott und nichts ohn’ ihn” BWV 1127 is a work that was lost for almost 300 years, and was only discovered very recently (2005).

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