Caldara: Regina coeli laetare

Description

Bach made a copy of his Magnificat in C major and arranged a movement from it, Mozart copied some of his hundreds of canons: Antonio Caldara (1670-1736) was regarded by his contemporaries and by later generations as a master of counterpoint and the stile antico. Born in Venice, from 1712 onwards he worked in Vienna at the same time as Johann Joseph Fux who called him a "composer of great virtu and ability" It is strange that Caldara's considerable output is so little known and that so few of his works have been published in modern editions.

In the liturgy of the Roman Catholic Church, the Regina coeli is one of the four Marian antiphons - that for Easter-which close the compline, the last of the canonical hours of prayer. Caldara set the fourfold text for four voices in four sections, canonically and with counterpoints which are retained from one to the other. The technical ability displayed in the composition is outstanding and in performance it is a most effective and virtuosic piece.