Oratorio de San Giovanni Battista in the Church of St. Lawrence in Vantaa, the 25th of March, 2018

I had hardly got home from St. Petersburg, when I had to hurry to the Church of St. Lawrence in Vantaa to hear Alessandro Stradella’s Oratorio de San Giovanni Battista produced by Orpheus’ Muses. The oratorio was first performed in 1675, so that meant one of my great favourites – baroque music. I think the Orpheus’ Muses does a great job in promoting baroque music and I am always looking forward to their new productions. I recommend following their web site http://www.orpheusmuses.com/gb/.

The venue - Church of St. Lawrence – is from the middle of 15^th century (partly re-built after a fire) and it is a relatively small church. The church suits really well for a baroque oratorio.


The oratorio tells about the final days of John the Baptist and how he is beheaded by the request of Herod's stepdaughter Salome.

The orchestra was Matias Häkkinen’s Ensemble Nylandia, which is a small orchestra by young musicians playing baroque music. At least in the front rows the music and the changing tunes of Stradella were very enjoyable.

The role of John the Baptist was sung by David Hackston. He is an experienced baroque music singer and his ornamentations really caressed your ears. The role of Salome was sung by Meri Metsomäki.

Since the original Counsellor – Juho Punkeri – had fallen ill, his role was sung by Elli Vallinoja in addition to her own role of Herodias. I had nothing against that, since she has a lovely voice which was nice to listen to, even in a double role. However, Punkeri being ill had caused some other changes, as well, so it would have been nice to hear the original soloists, too. Jussi Merikanto was Herod. He was excellent in the imposing announcements, but to me his ornamentations sounded a bit less agile. Though I do have to admit that often the ornamentations of lower voices sound less light to me than those of higher voices.  But the oratorio itself was great and I keep on wishing that more and more baroque music will be heard in Finland.

 

Church of St. Lawrence



The performers