Zigzag: ZZT080801

The Missa Votiva was written in Dresden in 1739 as a thank-offering for his recovery from an illness from which he had suffered over the previous ten years. Like the city of Dresden itself, at the crossroads of northern and central Europe, it showcases all the styles current at the time: choral movements in the style of the concerto, sections in stile antico, or arias worthy of the most recent operas. At times it seems to foreshadow Mozart.

This ensemble takes its name from the year of the first inscription in musical history of Jan Dismas Zelenka: his presence in 1704 at the Jesuit College of St Nicolas in Prague.

This is one of Zelenka’s most expansive masses. He was subsequently to begin a cycle of six masses, the Missae ultimae, which was interrupted by his final illness and his death on 22 December 1745.

Collegium 1704 will pursue its research into Zelenka on Zig-Zag Territoires with an oratorio (to be recorded in Prague in November 2008) and the Tenebrae Responses. There is also a project to record Handel’s La Resurrezione in 2009.