The Italian composer Domenico Cimarosa is a bit of a tragic figure. He lived in the second half of the 18th century. He was mainly of the Neapolitan school of opera, but his work took him all over Europa, including the court of Catherine the Great in St Petersburg. However, most of these ventures didn’t turn out that well. His four year stint in St Petersburg wasn’t a big success, and even though he had huge successes in opera in the 70s and 80s, that time also saw him marry twice, to women who didn’t outlive him. In fact, his first wife died a year later. Near the end of his life he backed the wrong party when French troops invaded Napels. When the monarchy was restored, he was imprisoned for his liberal views.
And yet, the genre that was Cimarosa’s specialty was the comedy. He wrote countless opera’s for the big opera houses of the time, including the Scala in Milan and the Fenice in Venice. This recording presents us with his requiem. It was probably written around 1787, when Cimarosa was Kapellmeister for Leopold II in Vienna. It was composed just a few years before Mozart’ requiem, but the two are worlds apart. Cimarosa’s is a respectful piece of music for mourning, but Mozart’s is a personal piece full of meaning on its own right. Mozart tried to dramatise death, where Cimarosa was consoling the mourners.