Carissimi - his name sounds vaguely like an Italian chocolate company, or maybe something slightly more racy - was one of the most influential composers of his time.

He composed at a point where sacred music was becoming less important in the Italian music world, but owing to his formidable talent, he was able to make several forms within the sacred world a valuable means of musical expression.

For example, he became to the oratorio what Haydn was to the string quartet and the symphony. Carissimi used the oratorio, always set to sacred texts, as a means of grand emotional statements. His drama probably influenced those who came later, and who quietly removed the overtly religious moments and replaced them with far more worldly emotions.

However, Carissimi quietly threw in his lot with the Jesuits, who wanted the church’s music to be accessible and understood by the faithful. So his compositional innovations actually sped along the secular music movement that would overtake music within 20 years of Carissimi’s death. Georg Frederic Handel was perhaps the greatest composer to use the great compositional leaps that Carissimi made.

One of his finest works is the centerpiece of our newly revived recording. “Judicum Extremum”.

Carissimi’s talent as a composer was to take the texts and use recitative to move the dramatic action along. 

The other works presented here are mainly choral, so only “Judicum Extremum” offers a real clue to Carissimi’s complete impact as a composer in the 1600s.