Monteverdi Vespro

“This large-scale live recording (Gardiner's second) was made in Venice's St Mark's Basilica. It captures the drama as well as the ceremonial aspect of the work, despite sometimes cloudy recorded sound.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide. “Gardiner's second [recording of the Vespers], spectacularly recorded live in St Mark's, has a punchy choral sound, near-operatic solo singing (Bryn Terfel and Alistair Miles are among the basses), emphatic enunciation, big contrasts and deliberate exploitation of the building's spaces. Its outright theatricality sets it apart from other performances.” Gramophone Magazine.

This disc constitutes the memoir of the concerti of Vespro della Beata Vergine (Vespers of the Blessed Virgin) of Claudio Monteverdi which took place in Palermo in the church of Santa Maria dello Spasimo from the 15th - 17th July 1999 for the occasion of the musical summer (Estate Musicale) of the Teatro Massimo (Fondazione Teatro Massimo). The concerti were carried out by the Teatro Massimo and the regional arts delegation for the town of Palermo in collaboration with the Association for Ancient Music Antonio Il Verso and the Institute of Music History of the University of Palermo. 'Could we have dreamt such glorious music-making was possible? This version has genuine impact, and goes straight to the top of the list of recommended recordings. Monteverdi, or the Vespers of the Blessed Garrido.' Repertoire '…this luminous vision constitutes one of the finest chapters in the history of modern Monteverdi interpretation.' –Le monde de la musique.

Here are the Monteverdi Vespers as you’ve never heard them before! ‘I see these Vespers as a great incantatory ritual that connects the sacred with the pagan, the intimate with the collective. I experienced this powerful sensation many times in my childhood, in the choir of an abbey: the intense, warm light of a late summer day, filtering in from the west and reflected all the way up to the choir’, says Simon-Pierre Bestion. The founder of La Tempête has made very personal choices for this recording, notably concerning the composition of the orchestra, which he has enriched with instruments from different cultures, including the serpent and the chitarrone. He has added ‘fauxbourdons’, simple improvised chants deriving from folk tradition. The colours of the voices in these Vespers are also very unusual: Bestion follows in the tradition of oral polyphony as it still exists in Corsica, Sardinia and Georgia.

Philippe Herreweghe and Collegium Vocale Gent present a highly accomplished version of one of the masterpieces of seventeenth-century sacred music. Composed shortly after L’Orfeo and dedicated to Pope Paul V, Monteverdi’s Vespers constantly surprise us with their audacity and their great emotional power. Stile antico and stile moderno combine here to wonderful effect, with Renaissance-style polyphony, accompanied monody and concertato style coexisting harmoniously. The importance accorded to the text (a key feature in Monteverdi), the virtuosity of the vocal writing and the independence of the part-writing are among the characteristics of this astonishing work. Philippe Herreweghe and Collegium Vocale Gent prove themselves to be Monteverdi interpreters of the first rank. Their lively, refreshing reading, enhanced by the presence of eight internationally renowned soloists, will ensure the success of this release.

After ‘Stravaganza d’amore’, their superb album of late sixteenth-century Florentine music, Raphaël Pichon and Pygmalion return to Italy, this time to Mantua. Here they offer us their reading of one of the peaks of sacred music from this period: Monteverdi’s Vespers. Revealing like no other interpreters the poignant interiority of these pieces, they bring out to the full their inherent sense of theatre. An overwhelming experience.

A much needed filling of a gap in the Brilliant Classics discography: the world famous Maria Vespers of Monteverdi! The Maria Vespers contain a collection of liturgical chants and psalms, for a wide variety of instruments, from the festive opening with trumpets to intimate arias for solo voice. In everything one hears the great dramatic genius of Monteverdi, the “first” opera composer in history. Excellent performance, on historical instruments, by conductor Diego Fasolis, and his “Barocchisti”, and a great line of vocal soloists, among whom are the well known Marco Beasley and Marinella Pennicchi.

Monteverdi’s “Vespro della Beata Vergine” was published in 1610, together with his “Missa in illo tempore”. This edition is his first important collection of music for the Catholic service, although there is much uncertainty about how it came into being. In fact, it is a collection of various pieces which were most likely not conceived together as a self-contained unit.

…For me, this composer deserves singing and playing to match his own level of daring, of passion and of originality, and I find that on the recording by the Monteverdi Choir and the Concentus Musicus, directed by Jürgen Jürgens with Nikolaus Harnoncourt (Teldec 4509921752) - just listen to Nigel Rogers in "Nigra sum": not just breathtaking in terms of virtuosity but fascinating in interpretation of language, and full of the kind of living, breathing joy in the score.

The present recording constitutes more than just a new version of the Vespers. It is the first recording of the Vespers in the alternative version proposed by the composer, without concertato instruments. It reveals the underlying matrix of the work we all know, the ‘original version’ to which Monteverdi added concertato instruments for use in large-scale performances. Respecting the structure of the Office of Vespers, Ludus Modalis has chosen to frame the psalms with the antiphons corresponding to a Marian ceremony.

Rinaldo Alessandrini's brilliantly realized recording of Monteverdi's Vespers is an intimate, slightly pared down version of the early Baroque masterpiece. Working in the warm acoustic of Rome's Palazzo Farnese, he employs just one singer per part, and eliminates instrumental doublings in the choral movements except where they are expressly indicated. The result is a compact, richly haloed sound that won't ever knock you out of your chair, but which flatters the more intimate solo and duet movements that can sound anemic in grander productions; with the sound gap between the biggest and smallest movements closed, each holds its own within the overall structure of the piece. While Alessandrini deserves credit for his conception and leadership, and especially his insightful treatment of Monteverdi's ever-changing rhythmic flow, it is his group of 12 singers that make the strongest impression.